New Technologies Won’t Save Us, but Here’s Something That Might

Part of the Deep Tech and Society online seminar series. Free and open to all; register through Microsoft Teams.

Environmental degradation and global wealth inequality are critical challenges today. Many promote high-tech solutions as silver bullets—yet these technologies often rely on scarce resources, precarious labour, and questionable extraction practices. Can technologies that may worsen these issues truly solve our problems? Join this discussion as we explore alternatives: mid-tech, commons-based approaches, and open cooperativism. We’ll examine how decentralised governance and digital commons might create more equitable technological futures and envision technology that serves humanity and our planet.

About the speaker

Vasilis Kostakis is Professor of Technology Governance and Sustainability at TalTech’s Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance. He also serves as Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2018, he received a European Research Council grant to study how to create a sustainable economy through the commons. Vasilis combines theoretical research with practical action, co-building spaces for creative resistance and commons-based alternatives.