Town Hall Seattle Civics Series

Technology pioneers like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft (to name a few) are woven into the fabric of Seattle’s economy. Yet, on a day-to-day basis, how much do you think about what these techno giants mean for the future of our world? With such enormous amounts of influence and money, how are these powers shaping our world today? Economist and journalist Loretta Napoleoni digs into these questions. At the dawn of the digital revolution, people thought the internet was going to be the great equalizer, a global democratic force. Napoleoni argues that instead, Wall Street funded a new breed of capitalists, the “Techtitans,” who embraced rapid, transformational change while stripping their workers of rights and enriching themselves. Those who control and own the technology are the absolute masters, in Napoleoni’s eye. In her book, Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barons and the Fight for the Common Good, Napoleoni describes how these phenomena are the beginning of a new world model, born in a period of