Prescient surveillance warnings from the 1960s are now celebrated as progress, not feared.

Evidence

Contemporary reviewers of Kahn’s book invariably seized upon the dark “nightmare scenarios” of the computerized surveillance theme, the science-fiction–like forms of control that, they assumed, “will be actively feared and resented by many.” Despite the wide range of scenarios that Kahn presented in his book on the distant year 2000, Kahn’s voyage into the “unthinkable” was viewed by the public as a way to prepare for “the worst possible outcome” in a terrifying “nightmare of social controls.” Yet now that same nightmare is rendered as an enthusiastic progress report on surveillance capitalism’s latest triumphs. Varian’s update is delivered without self-consciousness or a hint of controversy, rather than the astonishment and revulsion that were predicted just decades ago. How has the nightmare become banal? Where is our sense of astonishment and outrage? — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 683

Categorization

• SEED: The reframing of yesterday’s nightmare futures as today’s mundane product roadmaps is an essay-ready angle on surveillance normalization.
• XREF: connects to: Fearful publics endorse broad surveillance since safety outweighs privacy

Broader Connections

• Fearful publics endorse broad surveillance since safety outweighs privacy #corroborates (0.80)