Google’s founders frame total surveillance as the logical path to a perfected society

Evidence

Most unusual, however, is that Page portrays Google’s totalistic ambitions as a logical consequence of its commitment to the perfection of society. From his point of view, we should welcome the opportunity to lean on Big Other and willingly subordinate all knowledge and decision rights to Google’s plan. For the sake of the plan, the totality of society-every person, object, and process-must be corralled into the supply chains that feed the machines, which, in turn, spin the algorithms that animate Big Other to manage and mitigate our frailty: What you should want us to do is to really build amazing products and to really do that… — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1274

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘manage and mitigate our frailty’ framing echoes the earlier behavior-modification chapters; Big Other as the instrument of this management ties directly to Chapter Ten’s definition. — connects to: Google legitimated the ‘for-profit city’ as surveillance capitalism’s key urban ambition. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 712; Google institutionalized surveillance capitalism by simply declaring its right to take experience as data — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1078; Google’s founders conceived its product as capturing all personal life data — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 310 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Google’s founders saw human experience as free raw material for surveillance capitalism. #expands (0.90) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 315
• Google’s founders conceived its product as capturing all personal life data #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 310
• Google pioneered surveillance capitalism as GM pioneered managerial capitalism #exemplifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 39
• Surveillance replaces God’s total knowledge as an inescapable observer #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1499