“The commons are under attack” from TikTok and subsea cables to data centers and elections

2024 is the year of democracy, with more than half of the world’s population voting in elections across India and Indonesia to the European Union, United Kingdom and  United States. Underneath the usual campaign slogans and stump speeches though is a crucial set of enabling technologies that are increasingly under attack, diminishing the will of voters and raising very challenging geotechnology questions for governments in the years ahead.

That’s why I am excited to bring back the Riskgaming (née “Securities”) podcast’s very first guest, Scott Bade, back on to the show as we approach our centennial episode. Scott is geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group and has been tracking the rising threats to the world’s technological infrastructure and their implications for global politics.

We cover several dozen topics in the show, but focus on three big ones: the killing of TikTok in New Caledonia and what it says about France’s commitment to free speech as Azerbaijan (of all countries) attempts to undermine French democracy. We then zoom in on subsea cables, data centers and AI training, and why there’s been so much more competition in their construction. Finally, we talk about the Global South, and the lack of a new development path for countries in the AI era. Add in some chaos engineering, hybrid warfare, water politics, and the future of Disneyland’s Hall of Presidents and you’ll be demanding an Orthogonal Bet episode just to palette cleanse.

Produced by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Christopher Gates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Ko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠