Surveillance capitalists exclude individuals because awareness is friction against knowledge production

Evidence

Although it is obviously the case that we are excluded because the knowledge is not for us, these chapters have revealed a deeper structural basis for our exclusion. Now we know that surveillance capitalists’ ability to evade our awareness is an essential condition for knowledge production. We are excluded because we are friction that impedes the elaboration of the shadow text and with it surveillance capitalism’s knowledge dominance. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1027

Categorization

• QUESTION: This reverses a conventional assumption — that users are excluded merely because firms withhold data. The claim here is that our very awareness is structurally an obstacle, which I want to verify is argued empirically elsewhere in the book, not just asserted.
• XREF: connects to: Surveillance capitalism rests on extreme inequalities of knowledge and power — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 45; Surveillance capitalists dismissed privacy objections as habitual aversion to innovation — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 490; Surveillance capitalism treats social trust as unnecessary friction to be eliminated — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1058 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Surveillance capitalism treats social trust as unnecessary friction to be eliminated #expands (0.92) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1058
• Surveillance capitalism rests on extreme inequalities of knowledge and power #corroborates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 45
• Surveillance capitalists dismissed privacy objections as habitual aversion to innovation #corroborates (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 490