“The enemies of the future fear the unknown, the unplanned, the spontaneous. But that is where possibility lives.”
— Virginia Postrel, “The Future and Its Enemies”
In his tour of the early American Republic, Alexis de Tocqueville expressed deep admiration for the young nation’s vibrant civil society, its balance of liberty and order, and the extent to which it had carried forward the spirit of democratic innovation — a stark contrast to the turbulence of post-revolutionary France. But he also issued a warning: that the rising tide of egalitarian individualism might lead people to turn inward, embracing a self-centered ethos that disincentivizes risk-taking and openness to change.
He feared a future in which
“men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social adventure as a first step toward revolution, and they may absolutely refuse to move at all.”
Avoiding that descent into stagnation is, I believe, one of the most important challenges in politics and policy today. We should be much more optimistic about the future, and much more open to embracing the innovations — whether technological or institutional — that will help usher in a more prosperous America. To that end, I’ve come to believe that robotics will be the central flashpoint in technology policy debates over the next decade, and that getting policy right for the “embodied AI” era is key to promoting a future of abundance and avoiding the perils and pitfalls of economic and social stagnation. And the purpose of this Substack is to convince you that my opinions, though my own, should be yours as well!
While the focus will be on robotics, I’ll also touch on the broader cultural, philosophical, and technological currents that intersect with it. Sometimes that may mean diving into public governance frameworks; other times, it might mean riffing on a science fiction novel or music score that hits just right.
More than anything, this is a space for ongoing reflection and learning.
Thanks for reading!
About Me
My name is Ryan Hagemann. I currently serve as the global AI policy lead at IBM (though all the opinions expressed on this Substack are my own, not those of my employer). Prior to IBM I worked for many years in the think tank space writing about cool, cutting edge technological developments and building conceptual frameworks for how to think about regulating new technologies. All told, I’ve spent over a decade working in technology policy – everything from privacy and autonomous vehicles to gene editing technologies and AI. Frankly, the full scope of all the issues I’ve written on are too much to list here, though if you’re interested in a one-stop shop for a lot of references to my past work feel free to check out this (admittedly now somewhat outdated) Policymaker’s Guide to Emerging Technologies that I authored back in 2018.
I live right outside of Washington, DC, though I try to get outside the Beltway as much as possible. I have a lot of hobbies and interest, but right now I’m spending a lot of time working on my digital comic passion project, Pinnacle.
Q&A
I’ll regularly update this section with questions that come across my view screen. The following are some that have already been flagged from folks I know.
Why are you writing about robotics? Why not AI or other cutting edge emerging technologies?
Uh, because robots are fucking awesome? That’s about it in a nutshell.
I’ve written about lots and lots of emerging technologies over the years, and I work on AI policy as part of my day job. And sure, it’s all interesting and I love looking into any technology that can fundamentally alter the socio-economic fabric. But with limited time and general interests, at a certain point one has to choose a focus. With my spare time, I’m opting to dig into robotics because I think (1) its potential impact on the economy and society is massive and (2) it’s a greenfield policy landscape with lots of untapped potential.
Why does robotics policy matter?
Policy is important because the boundaries it creates informs how bright, or dim, our future can be. It contributes to defining what is possible by describing what is permitted.
If you care about the future, then influencing the levers of policy is a moral and strategic imperative. If we don’t actively engage in shaping the policies that govern robotics, we leave that terrain to others — to entrenched incumbents protecting legacy advantages, to bureaucratic inertia, or to risk-averse activists who guard the status quo at the cost of a vision of a better future.
What’s the deal with your profile picture?
Does it make you uncomfortable? What’s your initial reaction to that picture? Are you wondering who is giving the flower to whom? Does it unsettles you to consider there may be a deeper bond forming between the robot and the human?
These are the questions I’m intentionally fomenting with the use of that picture. Is it wrong to think of robots, both the rudimentary state in which they exist today and the more possibly humanoid features they may take on in the future, as worthy of emotional attachment, or indeed, respect? What about friendship, reverence, or even, dare I suggest, love? These aren’t trivial questions, and as robots become an increasingly common occurrence in day-to-day life, the answers will have a profound impact on what it means for society.
That picture, therefore, is an artistic representation of everything this Substack is intended to address.
