The Atlantic

Protecting the Public Commons

At a moment when institutional distrust is surging, there’s an urgent need to support civics education.
Source: Seth Wenig / Reuters/ Zak Bickel / The Atlantic

The debate about the role technology plays in society is as old as humankind’s ability to use tools and techniques to change our world. The technologies we have in our hands today would be magic to our forefathers, from gene editing to spacecraft to the smartphone you’re likely using to read this article.

The impact of information technology on democracies is a comparatively younger concern, driven by the quicksilver pace of

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