Great Transformation

Judith Bessant is a Professor at RMIT University, Melbourne, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. She is widely published and her research interests include policy, sociology, politics, youth studies, media-technology studies, and history. She has also worked as an advisor for governments and non-government organizations. In 2017 she was awarded an Order of Australia (AM) for her ‘significant service to education as a social scientist, advocate and academic specializing in youth studies research’.

"Judith Bessant addresses a crucially important question for our time: might the turbulent period we live in be re-conceived as a second Axial Age, driven by technological change? As the question itself implies, this requires an open-minded and fearless exploration of ideas from many disciplines. And the author delivers, with a stimulating synthesis. If we are going to understand what is happening to our species as we try to cope with artificial intelligence, we need more of this kind of broad scholarship."- Merlin Donald, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Canada"The Great Transformation ambitiously weaves together much-needed historical, sociological, scientific, and philosophical insights into our present techno-social condition, and how we might wisely steer its trajectory toward a better future. Pushing beyond simplistic utopian and dystopian metaphors, and rejecting tired and fatalistic theories of technological determinism, Bessant identifies new practices and principles of social thinking, learning, and designing that can help us rescue the endangered promise of technology for human flourishing."- Shannon Vallor, William J. Rewak S.J. Professor of Philosophy at Santa Clara University, USA, and author of Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting"Bessant puts the high-tech revolution of today in perspective of the great technological revolutions of human history. But because society and technology co-evolve, this look into the future highlights the freedom we can exercise to ensure everyone benefits."- Randall Collins, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, USA, and co-author of Does Capitalism Have a Future?

• Introduction 1. Freedom and Determinism: Alpha Go, AI Financial Trading and Japan’s Mika Diva 2. What is Happening? : The First Axial Age 3. Changing Our Minds: The Techno-Axial Age 4. Crisis and Learning from the past: Three economic crises, 1890-2008 5. Recursivity in Times of Crisis: A Heuristic 6. Data is the New Oil: Leadership and Political Rhetoric in the Techno-Axial Age 7. What experts say about Artificial Intelligence 8. Social design for the new Techno-Axial Age Conclusion