Page 96 - The Fourth Industrial Revolution

This is much worse today, in particular for decision-makers who tend to be

overloaded with too much “stuff” – overwhelmed and on overdrive, in a
state of constant stress. “In an age of acceleration, nothing can be more
exhilarating than going slow,” writes the travel essayist Pico Iyer. “And in
an age of distraction, nothing is so luxurious as paying attention. And in an

age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still.” 67

Our brain, engaged by all the digital instruments that connect us on a 24-

hour basis, risks becoming a perpetual-motion machine that puts us in an
unremitting frenzy. It is not unusual for me to talk to leaders who say that
they no longer have time to pause and reflect, let alone enjoy the “luxury” of

reading even a short article all the way through. Decision-makers from all
parts of global society seem to be in a state of ever-increasing exhaustion,
so deluged by multiple competing demands that they turn from frustration to
resignation and sometimes despair. In our new digital age, it is indeed
difficult to step back, though not impossible.

3.5.3 Managing Public and Private Information

One of the greatest individual challenges posed by the internet, and our
increasing degree of interconnectedness in general, concerns privacy. It is

an issue that looms larger and larger because, as the Harvard University
political philosopher Michael Sandel has observed “we seem to be
increasingly willing to trade privacy for convenience with many of the
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devices that we routinely use”. Spurred in part by the revelations of
Edward Snowden, the global debate about the meaning of privacy in a
world of greater transparency has only just begun, as we see how the
internet can be an unprecedented tool of liberation and democratization and
at the same time, an enabler of indiscriminate, far-reaching and almost

unfathomable mass surveillance.

Why does privacy matter so much? We all instinctively understand why
privacy is so essential for our individual selves. Even for those who claim
that they do not particularly value privacy and have nothing to hide, there
are all sorts of things said and done that we may not want anyone else to
know about. There is abundant research showing that when someone knows

he is being watched, his behaviour becomes more conformist and compliant.

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