Surveillance capitalists are the first utopians who can build new worlds directly from imagination.

Evidence

The Manuels observe a sixth characteristic of the future-oriented modern visionary, and this is where the men and the corporations examined here represent powerful exceptions to the rule: “Often a utopian foresees the later evolution and consequences of technological development already present in an embryonic state; he may have antennae sensitive to the future. His gadgets, however, rarely go beyond the mechanical potentialities of his age. Try as he may to invent something wholly new, he cannot make a world out of nothing.” In our time, however, surveillance capitalists can and do make such a world—a genuinely historic deviation from the norm. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1288

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with Frank Manuel’s study of utopian thought and with Marx’s theory-practice gap discussed in the next paragraphs. — connects to: Surveillance capitalism may realize Skinner’s utopia in service of profit — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1188; Utopian techno rhetoric is strategic propaganda that legitimates surveillance capitalism’s drive toward totality — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1284
• DEFINE: Defines the category of the surveillance-capitalist utopianist against Manuel’s classical utopian figure.

Broader Connections

• Surveillance capitalism may realize Skinner’s utopia in service of profit #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1188
• Utopian techno rhetoric is strategic propaganda that legitimates surveillance capitalism’s drive toward totality #complicates (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1284