Military demand distorts and suppresses civilian innovation, leaving industries vulnerable

Evidence

In the context of new military purpose, the digital capabilities that were aimed toward the advocacy-oriented values of the behavioral value reinvestment cycle flowed toward surveillance without impediment. Surveillance assets thrived without risk of sanction and attracted surveillance capital. Revenue followed. The situation recalls the auto, steel, and machine tool industries at mid-century, when military orders kept plants operating at full capacity. In the end, however, this turned out to be more curse than blessing. Military demand distorted and suppressed the innovation process and drove a wedge between these industries and their civilian customers, leaving them vulnerable to foreign competitors in the globalizing markets of the late 1970s and early 1980s. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 386

Categorization

• XREF: The military-distortion-of-industry parallel connects to broader histories of the military-industrial complex and could enrich the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ essay’s argument about how external demand shapes production choices. — connects to: The military-industrial loop self-perpetuates through mutually generated needs — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 190; Liberation from technological domination requires preserving the technological base — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 812; Military contractors feared post-war contraction of their markets

Broader Connections

• The military-industrial loop self-perpetuates through mutually generated needs #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 190
• Military contractors feared post-war contraction of their markets #exemplifies (0.82)
• Liberation from technological domination requires preserving the technological base #complicates (0.72) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 812