https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60372-1
Regular Article
From remote-controlled to self-controlled citizens
1 ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
2 Delft University of Technology, 2628 CD Delft, the Netherlands
a e-mail: dirk.helbing@gess.ethz.ch
Received: 24 November 2016
Revised: 24 November 2016
Published online: 18 January 2017
The digital revolution will make data abundant and cheap. Moving from a time of darkness into a digital age with information overload, we will need suitable filters. However, those who build these filters will determine what we see. This creates possibilities to influence people's decisions such that they become remotely controlled rather than make their decisions on their own. Since omnibenevolent rule cannot be supposed and top-down control is flawed for several reasons, another approach is needed. It can be found with distributed control, collective intelligence and participation. “Nervousnet” will be presented as a feasible specimen of a Citizen Web.
© The Author(s) 2017
Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
