Glen Weyl: Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy

On March 11, 2024, Glen Weyl of Microsoft stopped by the Lab to discuss "Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy."

Abstract
Digital technology threatens to tear our free and open societies apart through polarization, inequality, loneliness, and fear. But on a delicate, diverse, and politically divided East Asian island, things are different. In the decade since the weekslong occupation of Taiwan’s parliament, this island of resilience achieved inclusive, technology-fueled growth, overcame the pandemic without lockdowns and the infodemic without takedowns, as well as entrusted the people to tackle shared challenges like environmental protection while capitalizing on a culture of innovation to “hack the government.” In this book, Digital Minister Audrey Tang and her collaborators – architects of Taiwan’s internationally acclaimed digital democracy – share the secret of their success. Plurality harnesses digital tools not to replace humans or trust, but to harness the same potential energy in social diversity that can erupt in conflict instead for truth, beauty, and progress. From intimate digitally empowered telepathy to global trade running on social networks rather than money, Plurality offers tools to radically enrich relationships while making sure we leave no one behind. Plurality thus promises to transform every sector from health care to media, as illustrated by the way it has been written: as a chorus of open, self-governing collaboration of voices from around the globe. Their work in public on this openly available text shows — as well as tells — how everyone from a sharecropper in Africa to Hollywood celebrities can help build a more dynamic, harmonious, and inclusive world.

About Glen Weyl
E. (Eric) Glen Weyl is the founder and research lead of the Microsoft Research Special Project, the Plural Technology Collaboratory, founder of the RadicalxChange Foundation, the leading thinktank in the Web3 space, and founder and chair of the Plurality Institute, which coordinates an academic research network developing technology for cooperation across difference. He is also senior advisor to the GETTING-Plurality Research Network at Harvard University. He previously led Web3 technical strategy at Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, was co-chair and technical lead of the Harvard Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Rapid Response Task Force on Covid-19, whose recommendations were endorsed by a dozen leading civil Society organizations and the Biden Campaign and taught economics at the University of Chicago, Yale, Princeton, and Harvard.