Building UX design for “cognitive democracy”

Abstract

We benefit so much from technology but technoscientific infrastructure can also be seen to threaten the complexity of mutual relations, interactions, etc. that are features of democratic society. It is common today to speak of the “tragedy of the commons”, the “unusable” internet – even finding a battery charger on Amazon requires a degree in investigative journalism (Gross), machines that compromise our ability to function without them or that replace us (ML, RBA), epistemic bubbles and echo chambers (Nguyen). Is our technoscientific information age a poison or a cure? It is up to us.