Technology can change the world, says Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown spoke passionately about the power of technology

Technology can empower the creation of a "global ethic" because it enables people to empathise with those on the other side of the world, Gordon Brown said in a major speech yesterday.

Speaking without notes at a surprise appearance at the TED Global conference in Oxford, the prime minister said nations had a unique opportunity to come together and tackle global issues such as poverty and climate change because of new communication technologies.

"We now have the capacity to communicate instantly with anyone across the world," said Brown.

"We now have the capacity to find common ground with people we will never meet but we can meet through the internet. This makes this a unique age in human history and it is the start of a truly global society."

The prime minister cited examples through the ages when technology had helped spread a message globally, from a photo of a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl scarred by napalm that helped breed a public loss of confidence in the Vietnam war, to the use of Twitter and YouTube in the Iranian election protests.

He also highlighted the role of technology in recent elections in Zimbabwe.

"Because people were able to take mobile phone photographs of what was happening at polling stations, it was impossible for [Robert Mugabe] to fix that election in the way that he wanted to do," he said.

Brown also said the internet has the power to truly democratise the world and give a voice to those who may not usually have one.

"Foreign policy can never be the same again. It cannot be run by elites - it must be run by listening to public opinions of peoples communicating with each other around the world," he said.

And he said the internet must help empower the creation of new global institutions to tackle climate change and poverty.

"One of the things that’s got to come out of Copenhagen [climate change summit] in the next few months is that there is an agreement that there will be a global environmental institute that is able to deal with the problems of the whole of the world to move with the climate change agenda," said Brown.