ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the complexity debate and considers how new technologies are folded into social relations, ranging from smart grids and cloud infrastructures to the legions of algorithms, sensors and robots that infuse everyday life. It focuses on trying to define the distinctive characteristics of complex digital systems, both as key to the production of our professional and personal lives and as integral to the world’s future as a whole. The chapter looks at some innovative attempts to conceptualize emergent intersections between technology and society – not only computational forms, but also developments in artificial intelligence and robotics. There is the sheer scale of systems of digitization, of technological automation and of social relations threaded through artificial intelligence – all being key global enablers of the digital data economy. Over 3 billion people – almost half the world’s population – are online, and digital interactions increasingly impact upon even those who find themselves with limited digital resources.
