Exponential: Order and Chaos in an Age of Accelerating Technology

by Azeem Azhar

The story of the de-localisation and re-localisation of the internet is perhaps the neatest summary yet of the trajectory of the Exponential Age. Digital technologies have the potential to transcend national borders; but, as we have seen, they are just as likely to strengthen them. And that is especially true at a time when many global governments are turning back to nationalist politics. All this poses a problem for policymakers. The institutions that guide global policy and security were built during an era in which it was assumed that locality was not only dead, but perhaps didn’t matter. From geopolitics to global economics, institutions like the IMF and the WTO have long been the missionaries of globalisation, establishing a template for what participation in the world economy would like. These assumptions seem out of place in a world of national self-sufficiency in energy and commodities, localised manufacturing, and cities of ever-growing importance.