--- title: "Professor Warns Society Is Veering Toward a Digital Apocalypse" description: "A sociology scholar is cautioning that we are hurtling toward a \"systemic digital crisis\" caused by the digital economy." date: "2025-09-30" modified: "2025-09-30" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/professor-warns-digital-collapse" categories: - "Cybersecurity" - "Finance" - "Future Society" - "Hacking" --- # Professor Warns Society Is Veering Toward a Digital Apocalypse ![A sociology scholar is cautioning that we are hurtling toward a "systemic digital crisis" caused by the digital economy.]() *Photo Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images* With a growing list of futuristic horrors like [police spy networks](), [for-profit surveillance algorithms](), and [Uber-style rent-a-cop apps]() filling our lives, it's easy to feel like you're losing your marbles. Not to worry, though — one researcher confirms you're not paranoid; the walls really are closing in. Writing [in *The Conversation*](), University of Calgary **s**ociology professor Dean Curran says the research is clear: we're hurtling rapidly toward a cyber dystopia. Curran's argument is that as we become more and more connected, we increase our collective vulnerability to mass-scale breakdowns and manipulation. While he certainly isn't the first to point out that our increasingly digital lives [come at a cost](), the scholar warn**s** that it will take a "systemic digital crisis" before anything changes. As Curran puts it: "there are good reasons to believe that little will be done about these risks until a massive society-wide crisis emerges." How exactly the digital apocalypse plays out is difficult to say. It could look like a "widespread breakdown of basic infrastructure, such as electricity or telecommunications due to a cyberattack, to an attack that modifies existing infrastructure to make it dangerous," Curran writes. We've already seen glimmers of this, like in the massive [CrowdStrike failure]() last year which affected tens of thousands of systems throughout the world, or the [WannaCry ransomware attacks]() of 2017 which targeted healthcare systems in 99 countries. "Constant hacks, ransomware attacks and data leakages are warning signs that this is a deeply fragile system," Curran cautions. Or it could look like the 2008 financial crisis, a global economic disaster which is starting to [parallel our own](). The major difference, as Curran sees it, is that in the lead-up to global financial crisis, the economy wasn't lighting up with warning signs. With the current [AI economic bubble](), the risk is [clear as day](). "AI has taken many of these vulnerabilities into overdrive," he continues, "while adding new risks, such as AI hallucinations and the exponential growth in misinformation." Undergirding all of this is the lack of any kind of response from the people in charge of regulating the digital economy. Instead, tech companies have been given carte blanche to experiment with [our homes](), our [personal data](), and [our jobs](). Until those in power feel a shock big enough to kick them into action, it seems we're scheduled to wait it out on the edge of a knife as the digital collapse looms overhead. **More on dystopia:** *[Report Warns That AI Is About to Make Your Boss a Panopticon Overlord]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()