Interview with a writer: Evgeny Morozov

Evgeny Morozov is an iconoclast. He believes that technology, if abused or misused, has the potential to make society less free. His latest book, To Save Everything , Click Here, builds on his acclaimed polemic The Net Delusion (about which he spoke to the Spectator last year) to challenge those who suggest that technology is the solution to all of life’s problems.

Morozov describes how the technology of perfection is not necessarily compatible with democratic institutions and processes that are imperfect by definition. He reveals how ‘technological fixes’, particularly when coupled with market forces, threaten to close public debate and curtail personal choice; thereby moulding individuals into an efficient, homogenised society. Morozov grew up under the Soviet Union, and he knows a thing or two about the limitations of those devoted to efficiency and modernity. He applies a close reading of political philosophy and history to remind ‘Silicon Valley’ of the virtues of difference and imperfection.