Not a day goes by without a new story on the perils of technology: from increasingly clever machines that surpass human capability and comprehension to genetic technologies capable of altering the human genome in ways we cannot predict. How can we respond? What should we do politically? Focusing on the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), and the impact of new reproductive and genetic technologies (Repro-tech), Jude Browne questions who has political responsibility for the structural impacts of these technologies and how we might go about preparing for the far-reaching societal changes they may bring. This thought-provoking book tackles some of the most pressing issues of our time and offers a compelling vision for how we can respond to these challenges in a way that is both politically feasible and socially responsible.

‘Who must bear the costs of complying with a rule when no one in particular is responsible for its breach? New technologies present this classic problem to regulators on an unprecedented scale. Jude Browne uses a powerful concept of structural injustice to argue that independence from politics offers regulators a path toward accurately understanding public interests, rather than capture by the tech industries. This book is required reading for anyone seriously interested in the modern regulatory state.’

Anthony M. Bertelli - Author of Democracy Administered: How Public Administration Shapes Representative Government

‘Jude Browne’s imaginative and audacious book addresses two drastically transformative frontiers in our collective futures and shows how to reconstruct and revitalize a state institution to face them less unjustly and more effectively together.’

John Dunn - Emeritus Professor of Political Theory, University of Cambridge