Introduction to EmTech Anthropology

What if an anthropologist had been employee 1 to 5, or better yet, co-founders of Google? What would have Google’s trajectory and products looked like? In this introductory chapter, the editors of EmTech Anthropology use this question as a springboard to offer up their vision for how anthropologists can get involved with emerging technologies much sooner than they have traditionally done. They chart the historical precedents of how an innovative spirit has always driven anthropology to both explore and produce the frontiers it operates in and argue that anthropologists have always been innovators, albeit often unrecognized ones. As the discipline of anthropology continues to face challenges of identity, legitimacy, and employability, opportunities available in the realm of emerging technologies – like AI, robotics, Web3, cybersecurity, or genetic engineering – can be an area of work where anthropology thrives in the next century. Likewise, the authors argue that anthropologists should intervene at the frontiers of emerging tech and steer innovations toward ethical, equitable ends. Identifying the necessary conditions for achieving this outcome is the central focus of this introduction.