Future Ethics

‘Eloquent, insightful and utterly readable: a must read for anyone who is inventing the future or cares about living in it.’ —Christina Wodtke, Stanford University


‘Cennydd’s long-lens view of ethics is exactly what designers, product managers and builders of today’s digital products need.’ —Azeem Azhar, Exponential View


‘Destined to become a well-thumbed classic.’ —Alan Cooper, author of The Inmates Are Running the Asylum.


Technology was never neutral; its social, political, and moral impacts have become painfully clear. But the stakes will only get higher as connected cameras watch over the city, algorithms oversee society’s most critical decisions, and transport, jobs, and even war become automated. The tech industry hasn’t yet earned the trust these technologies demand.


Based on Cennydd’s years of research and consulting, Future Ethics transforms modern ethical theory into practical advice for designers, product managers, and software engineers alike. Cennydd uses the three lenses of modern ethics to focus on some of the tech industry’s biggest challenges: unintended consequences and algorithmic bias, the troubling power of persuasive technology, and the dystopias of surveillance, autonomous war, and a post-work future.


Future Ethics is an intelligent, quietly provocative book that challenges technologists to stand up for change, and teaches essential ethical principles and methods for building a fairer future.


Cennydd Bowles is a London-based designer and writer with fifteen years of experience and clients including Twitter, Ford, Cisco, and the BBC. His focus today is the ethics of emerging technology. He has lectured on the topic at Carnegie Mellon University, Google, and New York’s School of Visual Arts, and is a sought-after speaker at technology and design events worldwide.