ow do we as humans maintain our humanity—our agency, creativity, and rights—in a world awash with unfettered exponential technologies and the dangers they host: toxic misinformation, slop and weaponized disinformation, and various degrees of autocratic surveillance?
Let’s tackle each of these.
Keeping our Humanity in the Unfettered Exponential Tech Era
Keeping our humanity in a world where tech innovation and “progress” are moving at the speed of light, pretty much undeterred by regulations and norms, requires a conscious, conscientious and concerted human effort to counter the worst downsides of human “replacement.”
In business this means that we don’t fire people because AI will “replace” them—we carefully calibrate upskilling, education, and new jobs or transition support.
In military endeavors, this means not unleashing fully autonomous weapons without (the right) humans in and on the loop.
Safeguarding Human Creativity in the Face of Digital Slop, Misinformation and Disinformation
It is essential that we keep our human creativity and agency in face of the tsunami of both AI “artistic human replacement” (in music, film, art, journalism, writing, and more), and AI slop, misinformation, and disinformation.
We must do this at the personal, local, national, and international levels. This means, for example, that we don’t replace musicians with music bots but that we celebrate and pay human musicians to play live or recorded music they are so uniquely qualified to play and that we continue to support the teaching of these skills in schools and beyond.
Preserving Human Rights in an Age of Tech Surveillance
We are all now living in various forms of surveillance, regardless of whether you live in an autocratic state, an illiberal democracy, or a full–fledged democracy and regardless of the type of tech regulation you may or may not have.
This is true whether you live in:
- a centralized surveillance state like that pioneered by China
- a distributed model—like that of the U.S. where a combination of mega–tech companies and the government own the means (and the spoils) of surveillance, or
- a regulated model (like in the EU) where there are purported privacy protections but with a lot of leakage.
In all of the above cases, we are also likely to have the presence of private, nation state, and/or criminal enterprises within the surveillance apparatus.
The solution? Don’t let the fact that your privacy has been hijacked, stolen, monetized, controlled, and otherwise invaded stop you from demanding protections, transparency, accountability, and integrity from the abusive parties—whether governmental, business, social, or criminal—and those that are supposed to protect us.
a global affairs media network
Putting humanity first amid unfettered tech, slop, and surveillance
October 29, 2025
Amid ills associated with poorly regulated innovation preserving our shared humanity means reclaiming agency and creativity. Ethical governance and human–centered design must guide technology before it erodes what makes us human, writes Andrea Bonime–Blanc.
H
ow do we as humans maintain our humanity—our agency, creativity, and rights—in a world awash with unfettered exponential technologies and the dangers they host: toxic misinformation, slop and weaponized disinformation, and various degrees of autocratic surveillance?
Let’s tackle each of these.
Keeping our Humanity in the Unfettered Exponential Tech Era
Keeping our humanity in a world where tech innovation and “progress” are moving at the speed of light, pretty much undeterred by regulations and norms, requires a conscious, conscientious and concerted human effort to counter the worst downsides of human “replacement.”
In business this means that we don’t fire people because AI will “replace” them—we carefully calibrate upskilling, education, and new jobs or transition support.
In military endeavors, this means not unleashing fully autonomous weapons without (the right) humans in and on the loop.
Safeguarding Human Creativity in the Face of Digital Slop, Misinformation and Disinformation
It is essential that we keep our human creativity and agency in face of the tsunami of both AI “artistic human replacement” (in music, film, art, journalism, writing, and more), and AI slop, misinformation, and disinformation.
We must do this at the personal, local, national, and international levels. This means, for example, that we don’t replace musicians with music bots but that we celebrate and pay human musicians to play live or recorded music they are so uniquely qualified to play and that we continue to support the teaching of these skills in schools and beyond.
Preserving Human Rights in an Age of Tech Surveillance
We are all now living in various forms of surveillance, regardless of whether you live in an autocratic state, an illiberal democracy, or a full–fledged democracy and regardless of the type of tech regulation you may or may not have.
This is true whether you live in:
- a centralized surveillance state like that pioneered by China
- a distributed model—like that of the U.S. where a combination of mega–tech companies and the government own the means (and the spoils) of surveillance, or
- a regulated model (like in the EU) where there are purported privacy protections but with a lot of leakage.
In all of the above cases, we are also likely to have the presence of private, nation state, and/or criminal enterprises within the surveillance apparatus.
The solution? Don’t let the fact that your privacy has been hijacked, stolen, monetized, controlled, and otherwise invaded stop you from demanding protections, transparency, accountability, and integrity from the abusive parties—whether governmental, business, social, or criminal—and those that are supposed to protect us.
