They believe the impact of all of this is likely to increase inequality and compromise democratic systems. These experts worry that ethical design will continue to be an afterthought and digital systems will continue to be released before being thoroughly tested. They said this is likely to lead to advanced surveillance and data collection aimed at controlling people rather than empowering them to act freely, share ideas and protest injuries and injustices. Human-centered development of digital tools and systems: The experts who addressed this fear wrote about their concern that digital systems will continue to be driven by profit incentives in economics and power incentives in politics.The canvassing invited them to respond to five categories of impact. Only 18% said they are more excited than concerned.

Some 37% of the 305 experts who responded to this survey said they are more concerned than excited about what today’s trends say about where developments are headed over the next dozen years, and 42% said they are equally concerned and excited.

This chapter includes a selection of responses to the question, “ As you look ahead to the year 2035, what are the most harmful or menacing changes in digital life that are likely to occur in digital technology and humans’ use of digital systems?” These remarks generally echo the sentiments expressed by the experts whose comments are included in earlier sections of this report. The next two sections of this report include additional comments from experts, organized under the most common themes found in their responses.

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