Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Bruce Schneier warns that artificial intelligence will eventually find vulnerabilities in all sorts of social, economic, and political systems, and then exploit them at unprecedented speed, scale, and scope. After hacking humanity, AI systems will then hack other AI systems, and humans will be little more than collateral damage.

Hacking is generally thought of as something done to computer systems, but this conceptualization can be extended to any system of rules. The tax code, financial markets, and any system of laws can be hacked. This essay considers a world where AIs can be hackers. This is a generalization of specification gaming, where vulnerabilities and exploits of our social, economic, and political systems are discovered and exploited at computer speeds and scale.

Amy Ertan and Tarah Wheeler describe how the World Health Organization is uniquely positioned to help secure all facets of vaccine information.

The cryptocurrency depends on the integrity of the blockchain. But China's censors, the FBI, or powerful corporations could fragment it into oblivion, warn Barath Raghavan and Bruce Schneier.

Bruce Schneier explains how the modern market economy, which aggressively rewards corporations for short-term profits and aggressive cost-cutting, is also part of the problem: Its incentive structure all but ensures that successful tech companies will end up selling unsecure products and services.

The security threat to worry about is the one facing the public, not the president, advises Bruce Schneier.

Joel Clement writes that the federal government must allow community voices to drive infrastructure investment  and conservation in the North.

Bruce Schneier and Alicia Wanless argue that persuasion is essential to society and democracy, but  new rules governing how companies can harness it are necessary.

Henry J. Farrell and Bruce Schneier detail how Americans' shared beliefs about democracy can break down when political insiders make bogus claims about general fraud, trying to cling to power when the election has gone against them.

What can science and science policy do to jointly overcome the pandemic and other crises for a prospective future of the global society? What is the best case scenario for the dialogue between politics and science? How can science succeed as a diplomacy of trust? These are some of the questions this discussion will seek to answer.