Sameer Saran and Anirban Sarma masterfully map AI, statehood, and identity in a world where geography is being rewritten by technology—though their Huntingtonian lens may invite debate.
By Uzair Qadri
When we use the word unputdownable, I mean it in the same sense for the book “Geotechnography: Mapping Power and Identity in the Digital Age” by Sameer Saran and Anirban Sarma. It is a brilliant, concise book of around 200 pages, spread across eight chapters. But honestly, the book should have been considered—indeed, should have ranked at the very top—when it comes to understanding how the rules governing the digital world are evolving, how power politics, power parity, or rather power imparity is playing out, and how countries are reacting to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. It also addresses the regulations being framed around AI and, more fundamentally, the question of how human existence itself is being shaped by a storm that is moving far too fast and far too forcefully.
As far as the term Geotechnography is concerned, it refers to the breaking down—or increasing irrelevance—of the walls and barriers traditionally associated with geography. These barriers are becoming thinner and increasingly meaningless in the face of cloud space, the internet, and Web 3.0.
The first chapter focuses on understanding the changes that have reshaped our perception of the world and how the world has been completely transformed along an entirely different tangent due to the advent of artificial intelligence and digital influx. The operational quirkiness of the giants like X, Meta, Google, etc in failing to understand the varied realities of different countries across the world. The authors then go on to discuss what they describe as the invisibilisation of arguments, the piercing nature of social media in creating polarisation and division, and the exploitation of existing fault lines through stereotyping and generalisations within communities. This, in turn, fuels large-scale othering across societies worldwide.
What I particularly appreciated was the authors’ use of Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined communities to depict the Palestinian condition and the future of statehood in the presence of unequal and increasingly fortified structures pervading the digital space. This widening chasm is also reflected more broadly in the relationship between the Global North and the Global South.
The book further discusses how AI is reducing the space for human intervention and diminishing human liability, while highlighting the nebulous challenge of assigning responsibility in the era of agentic and autonomous artificial intelligence systems. It then juxtaposes Israel with Palestine and Russia with Ukraine, illustrating how the strong are becoming stronger while the weak are being further weakened. In this context, software giants like Microsoft and Google are having their moment, benefiting immensely from the ever-expanding domain of cloud space.
Subsequently, the book examines freedom of speech, hurt sentiments, digital disruptions, and their broader ramifications for growth, aspirations, and development—particularly for a country like India. This is especially relevant in the context of online majoritarianism and AI-augmented fake news and hate-driven narratives.
The authors also discuss global best practices, including safe harbour rules and the importance of privacy in the present age. They cite the regulatory approaches of Singapore and Hong Kong, which strive to ensure that technological use remains aligned with both citizen privacy and national development. The book then turns to India’s response to the growing menace of cybercrime and examines how countries across the world have shaped their data protection regimes. It discusses the EU’s GDPR at length, highlighting its pioneering role in fixing responsibility for the origination and spread of information.
Towards the end, the book references Edward Said’s arguments on the alienation of Palestinian land, juxtaposing them with contemporary Israeli narratives that claim similar victimhood. In its concluding sections, the book delves into the question of the diminishing significance of humans in the digital age—raising profound questions about who we are and what our existence means today.
In this sense, I am deeply impressed by the book. However, my point of disagreement lies in the authors’ reliance on Samuel P. Huntington’s arguments, which later culminated in the Clash of Civilisations. As we know, Huntington’s original essay was largely propagandistic. To suggest that borders have lost relevance overlooks a more pressing reality: a regression toward tribalism, where individuals increasingly associate themselves with transnational communities defined by shared lines of thought. This trajectory remains distant and deeply dangerous, as any accelerated movement in this direction risks becoming a recipe for genocidal ethno-national conflicts.
That said, hats off to the authors. I particularly admired their precise and evocative use of vocabulary, deployed exactly where it belonged. Marvellous.
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