Shoshana Zuboff created the term that was recently revived on television. We are all being controlled, towards becoming a fully interconnected hive.
The term was mentioned several times last Sunday, at the premiere of a different (and interesting) program on , where all the participants in that apparent debate are actors.
Throughout the broadcast, and amidst several important – and real – ideas about privacy, economics or the internet, the allusion to “surveillance capitalism”.
Like the other ideas put forward for the alleged debate, this expression really exists. It was created by Shoshana Zuboff.
The famous sociologist published the book which, in short, argues that it is almost becoming impossible for us to build a future different from the future that is already being programmed by us.
We are all going to be controlled, towards being a fully interconnected hive.
And it’s no longer a question of the famous ‘Big Brother’ totalitarian; now there is a omnipresent digital architect that operates in the interests of surveillance capitalism, with a constant promise of an easy and consuming life.
And the comparison between the enormous power of high-tech companies and societies and the democratic governments.
For Shoshana Zuboff, “surveillance capitalism” is a global project of behavior modification. The idea – or threat – is to transform human nature in the 21st century.
This capitalism accumulates a immense wealth and power in the so-called «behavioral futures markets».
The question that remains is similar to the questions we ask about Artificial Intelligence: will we be able to control information and machines, or will we be dominated by information and machines?
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, ZAP //
