Centre for Internet & Society

Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session "The Promise and Peril of Technology" at the 14th edition of India Trilateral Forum organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Observer Research Foundation and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Sweden in Goa from March 22 - 23, 2018.

The Promise and Peril of Technology

The emergence of new technologies create possibilities for change, yet also carry risks of the emergence of “soft wars,” privacy issues, ethical challenges, among others.  With global military spending on the rise, we may now be on the cusp of a series of new technological innovations that will fundamentally change the way we conduct warfare. The rise of low-cost real-time satellite surveillance has the potential for privacy violation, intrusive controls, and hacking. Many credit the digital revolution with creating new possibilities for democratic engagement, because information technology has made institutions like mass media less hierarchical. There are hidden costs to the digital revolution and the transformative technologies, which needs to be carefully understood. The panel discussed the deeper layers of opportunities and risks associated with transformative technologies on war and peace and discuss whether the U.S., India, and Europe are falling behind China in this crucial area.