#Title

Digital revolution: Prospects and preparations
Continued from page 28
cost to the end user. Blockchain requires large amounts of computing power to run complex algorithms, necessitating enormous amount of energy. This costs heavily on environment, particularly in the backdrop of climate crisis, causing higher vulnerabilities to countries such as Bangladesh. This calls for transformation of the system to a low intense energy user.
Moreover, the tech oligarchies remain out of reach of taxation. For example, these are operating in Bangladesh and earning billions of revenues, but are non-resident for the purposes of taxation. Some tech giants are also reluctant to have country offices in smaller countries, with much interest in having the company registered in tax heavens. Several countries, like Spain, France, and India have introduced “digital tax” and taxation on these companies could be a significant source of revenue for the government.
Consent and dissent
The fourth industrial era has opened new platforms for citizens to engage with governments, express their opinions, organise their efforts, and even circumvent supervision of public authorities. At the same time, governments can use digital means to control citizens and manufacture consents. Nevertheless, regulatory role of governments depends on the nature of a state.
Government can regulate misuse of digital platforms using policies, means and instruments. Yet controlling provisions of governments may also go against fundamental rights of citizens. For example, “Digital Security Act” in Bangladesh has been, decried by human rights defenders as a means to silence dissent. Hence, regulatory policies should be made adhering to civil and political rights so that authoritarian states may not be able to turn those as weapons of reigning in atmospheres of fear and domination. There should be a balance of government’s efforts to reach people through promotion of their services and people’s opportunity to express their opinions. If justice cannot be ensured, coercion would prevail.
Norms and values
Technology is shaping existing social order. It is making a new wave of fusions among societies and cultures. Established norms are reshaping and preferences derived from those norms within societies can also be mobilised through technology. Different views, ideas, concepts, doctrines can be created, disseminated and reinforced easily than before. Social media has enabled people from different unknown backgrounds to gather in a common platform to present their perspectives. In this way ICT is tremendously influencing politics and democratic norms. Social networking sites are being used by populist leaders, emotionally engaging within a same tribe, isolating them from other narratives. In this way, politicians are manufacturing consent in favour of their ideological projects.
Social media is also making people altruistic. For example, an open platform like Wikipedia demonstrates that people often have altruistic motives, though mainstream views that individuals are guided by virtues of self-interest and do not care about outcomes of others. Such projects reveal human beings’ two intrinsic qualities: reciprocity and inequality aversion. Reciprocity is people’s willingness to reward friendly actions and punish detrimental actions while inequality aversion implies people’s tendency to reduce inequality by taking costly actions with altruistic preferences.
Digital platform is, therefore, opening new windows for many as well as increasing inequalities. It is connecting people from many parts of the world as well as creating a “connected isolation”. People are virtually connected but remain isolated even within a family. Technological development has become a new means of generating, disseminating and reinforcing different views and ideologies, which are often challenging established order. In facing challenges of the changing order there is a need to place regulatory provisions that represent cultures and traditions of Bangladesh as well as encompass universal values and obligations.
Security and privacy
As technological advancement is occurring rapidly, there is a widespread concern regarding legal and social protection. New technologies like artificial intelligence, drone system which have created a huge hype and added substantial values, amongst others, in the areas of human rights, economic outcomes and basic service deliveries. On the contrary, there are strong allegations that these technologies are being used, violating human rights, civic freedoms and sovereignty. The persisting contrast of the same technologies has become a major concern. For example, there are cyber wars often among countries. Artificial intelligence and drones are being used as lethal weapons. Advocacy groups, trade unions, child-rights organisations and other institutions are also facing digital threats and attacks. In some cases, ordinary citizens are killed and sovereignty of countries is put at risk. There are fears of robotic war in future if this negative aspect of technological advancement cannot be reined in. Most importantly, it has to be realised that technological transformation should be used as a blessing for general public, not as a weapon for mass destruction.
In this current flow of movement towards digital transformation, security and privacy are two pivotal issues that too have become notable concerns. This creates a mounting challenge in countries with authoritarian regimes and fragile institutions. In order to integrate the whole, multilateral enforceable security and privacy regulatory mechanisms should be developed. Innovative and resilient privacy and security system will lead towards faster and more flexible collaborative value networks and smart production provisions. More challenges are yet to come hand in hand with increased use of data analytics. “Trust” is a significant issue and also an imperative in this new era.
Conclusions: Ecosystem and sustainability
The current digital revolution is supposed to affect the whole ecosystem. The relations amongst human being, technology, nature and society may lead to massive transformation. All stakeholders within the system must have their just share such that no one gets alienated or exploited from the cycle.
There were more than 26 billion connected devices in 2019, which may increase to 75 billion by 2025. Estimations indicate that the current digital transformation consumes about seven percent of the world’s electricity, which is to leap up to 12 percent by 2020. Digitalisation has, therefore, emerged as potential challenge to sustainability of ecosystems pertaining to social and environmental wellbeing. The ecosystem sustainability depends on the provisions that guarantee just and equitable share and access to digital platforms irrespective of class, caste or creed as well as on the terms of access and benefit sharing between humans and nature. Technological advancement, much like nature, will, hopefully, find its way.
Dr Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir is Professor of Economics at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Dhaka and Chairperson of the Dhaka based think-tank, Unnayan Onneshan .