Computational governance’s metric requirements force a mimicry-based view of humanity.

Evidence

Pentland ignores the role of empathy in emulation because empathy is a felt experience that is not subject to the observable metrics required for computational governance. Instead, Pentland subscribes to the label Homo imitans to convey that it is mimicry, not empathy, and certainly not politics, which defines human existence. The term itself derives from studies of infant learning, but for Pentland it is a fitting explanation of all human behavior all the time: an assertion, like Skinner’s, that control always rests with society. “The largest single factor driving adoption of new behaviors,” he writes, is “the behavior of peers.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1392

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains Homo imitans as Pentland’s defining label for humanity, drawn from infant-learning studies.
• XREF: Connects to Skinner’s behaviorism, central to earlier chapters of this book. — connects to: Scientific reified models acquire objective power over humanity’s self-conception — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2702; Data-driven governance converts democratic dialogue into a corporate-owned probability spectrum — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 645; Algorithmic governance is emerging in justice systems worldwide without clear oversight — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 447 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• A rationality geared to domination shapes how we construe the Other #corroborates (0.78) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 464
• The actualist State-as-superior-entity theory reduces individuals to abstractions #expands (0.75)
• Social organization displaces autonomous moral drive with instrumental and procedural rationality #complicates (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 612