Artificial Jurisprudence: Understanding the Consequences of Emerging Technologies for Human Rights and the Role of Technology Activism

Abstract

Information technology and computer networks have the potential to catalyze some of the greatest social transformation in history. However, the rapid development of these technologies stands to outpace policy governing them - especially in the arena of human rights. While information technology has the potential to solve numerous problems, such as coordinating vast logistics systems to reduce food waste; or automating simple home functions to improve quality of life for the disabled, it also provides avenues for surveillance, coercion, and control through both state and private, many of which would have been unimaginable when the human rights movement first crystallized.