Who Owns the Future? Ways to Understand Power, Technology, and the Moral Commons
MCML Authors
Abstract
Abstract
The ascent of tech billionaires—and, depending on the market, soon trillionaires—signals more than a shift in global economic structures; it marks a transformation in the moral and cultural conditions under which democratic life is sustained. This contribution offers a communitarian critique of Big Tech’s influence, grounded in the philosophical frameworks of Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel, and virtue ethicist Shannon Vallor, and further supported by public goods theory and economic insights from Paul Samuelson and Joseph Stiglitz, with Elinor Ostrom’s work emphasizing the civic importance of collective stewardship. It contends that the challenge to democracy posed by concentrated digital power is not merely institutional, economic, or ethical, but a disruption of the very conditions for democratic citizenship.
BibTeXKey: MK25