This seems like a pretty shallow analysis. Plenty of thinkers who have preceded Harai have offered views on the political qualities of technology that strike me

This seems like a pretty shallow analysis. Plenty of thinkers who have preceded Harai have offered views on the political qualities of technology that strike me as more nuanced, potent, and true. Lewis Mumford, writing in the 30s and 60s, conceived of two broad politico-technic tendencies throughout history--authoritarian and democratic--both could exist and certain forms of technology fell in one bucket or the other. Langdon Winner, working off the ideas of Mumford and many others (stretching far back as Plato) developed a very sophisticated look at technics and the ways in which political structures favor or disfavor certain technologies, and the ways in which technological systems collide with political, economic, and social systems to result in a deep integration between technology and politics. Mr. Harai's article, contrarily, seems to be little more than an untempered reaction to current events, without requisite incorporation of the prior development and analysis of concepts in the fields of the history and philosophy of technology. I more or less think Harai's conclusion is sound--our current technical configurations and over-reliance on centralized information technologies does trend toward a more authoritarian, rather than democratic, political state of affairs. However, I think his argumentation is incredibly weak and speculative. It could have been rendered a lot stronger, and more useful, by engaging with the prior developments in the field. Perhaps this judgement is a little unfair--this is a book excerpt converted into a digestible Atlantic article--but I can't help but wonder if part of our lack of control over technological growth and our lack of full consideration of the ways in which our technological developments intersect with politics is due to too many taking a stance like Harai's—one that is unduly speculative and seems to forget the many warning flags and conceptual tools the tradition has equipped us with, which, if properly employed, may help us correct our unfortunate trajectories.