What If We Took Back Control of Tech?

If technology is reshaping how we think, who gets to decide the rules?

Not a story about doom, but a conversation about where hope, humanity and choice still live.

Technology is no longer something that simply supports how we live and work. It increasingly shapes how we think, what we notice, what we trust, and where our attention goes.

In this 18-minute TED-style talk, Jim Morrison takes on one of the defining questions of our time: what happens when the systems shaping society move faster than our ability to question, challenge, or regulate them?

From algorithmic feeds and social media design to the growing cognitive impact of AI-assisted thinking, this session explores the tension between technological progress and human autonomy. Rather than leaning into easy fear, Jim asks where hope still lives, and what it would take to build a healthier relationship with the technologies that now sit at the centre of modern life.

At the heart of the talk are three ideas: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. What happens to our ability to think deeply when answers arrive instantly? What happens to community when attention becomes the product? And what responsibility do leaders, institutions, and the tech sector itself have in shaping what comes next?

Following the talk, Jim will stay on stage for a live interview and audience conversation, opening up some of the bigger questions behind Bath Digital Festival’s What If? theme:

• What if regulation became a tool for social progress?
• What if we prioritised human capability alongside innovation?
• What if technology was designed to strengthen society, rather than extract from it?
• What if we demanded something different from the systems we rely on every day?

This is a session for founders, technologists, policymakers, educators, creatives, and anyone curious about the human future of technology.

Thoughtful, challenging and ultimately hopeful, it’s a conversation about who gets to shape the next chapter, and whether we are prepared to ask more of the tools now shaping our world.

Format: 18-minute TED-style talk followed by a live interview and moderated audience Q&A.

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Host or Publisher TechSPARK