‘The Information Age has the capacity to create highly illiberal and even brutal orders that will no longer suffer from stagnation of ideas, inventiveness or prosperity. Unlike Industrial Revolutions, freedom to exchange views, ideas and products might no longer be the key to success. In a matter of decades, the merger of infotech and biotech could nullify Adam Smith’s invisible hand, massively strengthen state control and eliminate humans as the source of inventiveness and ideas. Although technology has always enhanced freedom, and ultimately this might still be the right answer, for decades to come, freedoms might continue to erode. Desire for fairness, equality and conformism – rather than efficiency, freedom and choice – might become the dominant societal norms. The book explores whether today’s China and its economic, social and political structures offer a glimpse of our common future.’
