Power, Data, and Democracy: A Wake-Up Call in the Coffee Break

Power, Data, and Democracy: A Wake-Up Call in the Coffee Break

April 18, 2025

During the coffee break at the Caribbean Data Centers Conference, I found myself talking to two familiar faces. I shared a growing concern that’s been on my mind for a while: the increasing concentration of power, technology, and data, and the threat it poses to freedom and democracy.

I cite the United States as an obvious example, but it still feels like a distant problem, something happening far from our shores. That is, until the minister casually mentions in the opening speech of the conference that two data centers on the island are being merged. The justification? His party has secured the right to govern for the next four years.

It hits me—how blatantly it's happening, right in front of us.

I say, maybe—maybe—I could accept such concentration of power if it came with some form of security for the people, perhaps through a universal basic income (UBI) or similar mechanism. Interestingly, it is mostly billionaires who seem to support such ideas. And, just as curiously, it's often those you wouldn't expect who are vehemently opposed to them.

Meanwhile, wealth and power are concentrating faster than ever.

This brings me back to a set of scenarios I studied during the pandemic: the Rockefeller Foundation’s Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development (2010). It outlines four potential futures based on two axes: strong vs. weak political/economic alignment, and high vs. low adaptive capacity. The four scenarios are:

• Hack Attack: A world plagued by instability, weak governments, criminal networks, and reckless technology.

• Lock Step: After a devastating pandemic, governments tighten control, stifling innovation and sparking citizen un-rest.

• Smart Scramble: An economically depressed world relying on ad-hoc, local solutions with just-good-enough technology.

• Clever Together: A highly coordinated global response to crises, driving innovation and sustainability.

Right now, we are headed straight for Hack Attack or Lock Step.

Still, I hold onto hope. As Dutch professor Jan Rotmans says, per-haps an “undercurrent” can become the counterforce. The voice of resistance. Maybe that’s what we need now more than ever.

Miguel Goede