From Pessimism to Promise

In her book From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech, Payal Arora, Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures, offers a deeply compelling case that it is not naïve to be optimistic about our digital future.

Gen Z and the future of technology

When it comes to tech, mainstream headlines are bleak: algorithms control and oppress. AI threatens democracy and our social fabric, and could even lead to extinction. While these fears are legitimate, we need to account for the fact that tech offers young people something incredibly valuable: a rare space for self-actualisation.

Drawing on insights from diverse global contexts, Arora explores what drives Gen Z to adopt new technologies. The book covers the shift to relationally-driven approaches to design, creating ‘algorithms of aspiration’, reimagining digital spaces for sex, pleasure, and care, and what we can learn from feminist digital activists and women’s collectives in the Global South.

Optimism and innovation in tech

The book challenges sacred ideas on degrowth, the circular economy, and the doughnut economy by incorporating indigenous approaches to sustainability. Arora also discusses how users from the majority world influence algorithms with everyday aspirations, pushing for a new digital order.

Outside the West, where most of the world’s youth reside, is a significant different outlook on tech: in fact, there is a contagion of optimism toward all things digital. These users, especially those in marginalised contexts, are full of hope for new tech.