We hoped that new technologies would lead to a more unified, smoother world. By knocking down the barriers to innovation, social mobility and knowledge, they were supposed to give everyone the means to achieve their own emancipation and to fulfill their potential.

What a disappointment it has been! Internet did indeed knock out plenty of intermediaries, but it also threw up huge barriers that have divided the world in two. It has consolidated the domination of a handful of firms that can impose their will on the entire world. Democracy is caught in a vice between these new dictatorships and the minorities they hope to enslave.

If we can’t figure out how to change our institutions, wrest back control of the Promethean power of new technologies, and help societies achieve new balance and people to forge new identities, we may well be facing unheard-of outbreaks of violence. Unless we all become neuro-cultivators – i.e. informed, active consumers; flexible workers willing to learn new skills; informed, literate citizens able to step back, interpret and analyze all sorts of discourse – digital technology will destroy civilization.