I think Cory Doctorow is right about Shoshana Zuboff's "blindspot".
It's not that she's wrong because I haven't seen many strong claims
she makes as to the effectiveness of Surveillance Capitalism. And so
maybe Cory is missing what she's really (not) saying about it.
The mistake is to assume the surveillance capitalism phenomenon is
driven by and all about commercialism.
Or is there another explanation? Never in history did authoritarians
hell-bent on cybernetic social control have a better cover for rolling
out machinery that panders to "what people want". That's the big
lie. Most people are absolutely ambivalent about technology because
they don't "want" it, not in a strong sense. They take what they're
given, like what they know and so know what they like. And as that
cycle continues, become ever more dependent on it.
Meanwhile money poured in through In-Q-Tel and similar conduits has
erected and transferred vicarious control of technologies unmatched by
any official state apparatus.
Of course the advertising industry is good at selling itself, and full
of puff and bluster. What on earth would one expect!? But once you
pull that mask off the ghost at the abandoned fun-fair, those meddling
kids are gonna start asking a much more awkward questions...
If none of this stuff is really making any money, then who is paying
for it?
The mistake is to assume the surveillance capitalism phenomenon is driven by and all about commercialism.
Or is there another explanation? Never in history did authoritarians hell-bent on cybernetic social control have a better cover for rolling out machinery that panders to "what people want". That's the big lie. Most people are absolutely ambivalent about technology because they don't "want" it, not in a strong sense. They take what they're given, like what they know and so know what they like. And as that cycle continues, become ever more dependent on it.
Meanwhile money poured in through In-Q-Tel and similar conduits has erected and transferred vicarious control of technologies unmatched by any official state apparatus.
Of course the advertising industry is good at selling itself, and full of puff and bluster. What on earth would one expect!? But once you pull that mask off the ghost at the abandoned fun-fair, those meddling kids are gonna start asking a much more awkward questions...
If none of this stuff is really making any money, then who is paying for it?
And Why?