There's an increasing tendency for technological and scientific advances to concentrate power in the hands of a few elites such as technical experts, government and billionaires.

I call this tendency Scientific Authoritarianism and I think it's making people scared of science!

It's a critical time in human history. Many scientific and technological challenges, like climate change, the pandemic and social media misinformation, require us to work together but the solutions often give an extremely small minority the means to exploit the majority.

Many of us fear this concentration of power so much that we find ourselves denying the science not because it's inaccurate but because it comes to us in forms that we find insidious and oppressive.

On the right this means rejecting pandemic restrictions because of a fear of concentrating power in hands of the government or liberal academic elites. In fact, we have seen that government power has been an important factor in successful pandemic control in many countries.

On the left, we increasingly reject the parts of silicon valley that produce technical advancements at the cost of decreasing diversity and increasing economic inequality. Meanwhile, both the left and the right view the increasing power of tech billionaires with mistrust.

I don't think it's unavoidable that scientific and technical advances require centralization of power. There must be other options besides handing power over to government, deferring to the technical elite or allowing the free market to concentrate power in the hands of a few.

It is becoming increasingly necessary to actively seek to develop science that is anti-authoritarian in design meaning it avoids concentrating power. We need more scientific solutions that are bottom up and democratic by design.

This should be a welcome idea on the right where people resist technocratic efficiency because they fear a powerful hyper-competent government. It should also be attractive to the left where we fear concentration of power in the hands of traditionally exploitative groups.

I believe decoupling science and authoritarianism will be one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. We will need to think deeply about how to combat it if we are ever to fully restore the public's trust in technology and science.