If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- How did an eleventh-century trading system used by Maghribi merchants lay the groundwork for modern sharing-economy platforms like Uber and Airbnb?
- Why have events like the 2008 financial crisis and the release of the Panama Papers accelerated our shift away from trusting established institutions toward trusting complete strangers?
- How could the same digital rating systems that make it safe to hire a babysitter online be weaponized to control citizen behavior, as seen in China's Social Credit System?
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Key Takeaways from Who Can You Trust?
- Human trust has evolved through three distinct phases: local trust within tight-knit communities, institutional trust mediated by authorities, and our current era of distributed, peer-to-peer trust.
- Technological transparency and major scandals, such as the 2008 financial crisis and the Panama Papers, have severely undermined public confidence in traditional, top-down institutions.
- The modern sharing economy thrives on distributed trust, utilizing digital reputation trails and peer rating systems to hold individuals accountable and make interacting with strangers safe.
- While rating systems empower platforms to self-regulate, they can also be weaponized for societal control, as demonstrated by China's comprehensive Social Credit System.
- Blockchain technology promises to revolutionize future trust by creating immutable digital ledgers that verify information and eliminate the need for traditional intermediaries.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from Who Can You Trust?
Mind Map
Who Can You Trust?
Evolution of Trust+
Decline of Institutions+
Mechanics of Distributed Trust+
Reputation and Ratings+
Dangers of Rating Systems+
Blockchain's Future Role+
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 7
According to the book, what are the three distinct periods of trust in human history?
Question 2 of 7
How did the eleventh-century Maghribi traders solve the problem of trusting distant intermediaries in Sicily?
Question 3 of 7
What role did events like the 2008 financial crisis and the release of the Panama Papers play in the evolution of trust?
Question 4 of 7
How does the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba help users make 'trust leaps' in online transactions?
Question 5 of 7
According to the text, why are anonymous drug dealers on the darknet often more honest about their products than street dealers?
Question 6 of 7
Under China's Social Credit System (SCS), what is a potential consequence of being friends with someone who makes an anti-government remark online?
Question 7 of 7
How is blockchain technology predicted to change the way we handle complex transactions, such as buying a house?
Who Can You Trust? — Full Chapter Overview
- 1Recommendation
- 2Trust opens the door to the world.
- 3The third great revolution in human trust is underway.
- 4Institutional trust was never likely to survive the digital era.
- 5The sharing economy both reflects and drives distributed trust.
- 6We act more trustworthily when we know our peers are rating us.
- 7China aims to rate every citizen’s “trustworthiness” by 2020.
- 8Blockchain technology is poised to transform how we trust each other.
Who Can You Trust? Summary & Overview
Who Can You Trust (2017) analyzes the past, present and future of trust. Rachel Botsman addresses the most pressing questions of our networked age, asking why it is that we now trust complete strangers with the most intimate aspects of our lives. She also explores how new technologies like blockchains will continue to revolutionize our relationship with others.
Who Should Listen to Who Can You Trust??
- Anyone fascinated by the big ideas that make the world tick
- People interested in the cutting edge of technological change
- Futurologists burning to know what our societies will look like in ten years
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