Big Data Leads to Future Fears for Digital Democracy

As a tech writer, I sometimes feel about new technology the way I suspect military historians must feel about war: You just can't say you love every aspect of your subject. My default model for "tomorrow" is built on the bright and exciting images of yesterday's tomorrow, from "Star Trek" and Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and Tom Swift. As naïve as it may sound, I inherited from the books, films and TV shows of my childhood a basically progressive view: Despite bumps and missteps occasionally setting us back along the way, technology ultimately would lead to a better future. And I believe it has. Despite the anxiety we seem to thrive on these days, this is a safer world than the one I was born into nearly 70 years ago.