Surveillance capitalism requires ubiquitous computing but not the reverse

Evidence

Finally, I want to underscore that although it may be possible to imagine something like the “internet of things” without surveillance capitalism, it is impossible to imagine surveillance capitalism without something like the “internet of things.” Every command arising from the prediction imperative requires this pervasive real-world material “knowing and doing” presence. The new apparatus is the material expression of the prediction imperative, and it represents a new kind of power animated by the economic compulsion toward certainty. Two vectors converge in this fact: the early ideals of ubiquitous computing and the economic imperatives of surveillance capitalism. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 632

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘predictive certainty’ compulsion ties to the foundational 1950s planning/economics debates and to the reader’s framing of surveillance as the new capitalism. — connects to: Surveillance capitalism is economic imperatives, not the technologies they employ — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 62; Surveillance capitalism operates quietly through ambient technology that bypasses our awareness — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1200; Battery-free smart skin enables perpetual, inconspicuous ambient surveillance networks — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 753

Broader Connections

• Surveillance capitalism is economic imperatives, not the technologies they employ #qualifies (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 62
• Surveillance capitalism operates quietly through ambient technology that bypasses our awareness #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1200