Surveillance is founded on asymmetries of knowledge and power
Evidence
A one-way mirror embodies the specific social relations of surveillance based on asymmetries of knowledge and power. The new mode of accumulation invented at Google would derive, above all, from the firm’s willingness and ability to impose these social relations on its users. Its willingness was mobilized by what the founders came to regard as a state of exception; its ability came from its actual success in leveraging privileged access to behavioral surplus in order to predict the behavior of individuals now, soon, and later. The predictive insights thus acquired would constitute a world-historic competitive advantage in a new marketplace where low-risk bets about the behavior of individuals are valued, bought, and sold. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 254
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the one-way mirror as the governing metaphor for surveillance capitalism’s social relations.
- XREF: Connects to the reading of Foucault’s panopticon as the foundational asymmetry-of-power metaphor. — connects to: Unfettered surveillance capital, not democratic law, decides the division of learning — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1028; Surveillance capitalism rests on extreme inequalities of knowledge and power — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 45; Dominance over society’s division of learning is surveillance capitalism’s new axial principle — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 566 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Surveillance capitalism rests on extreme inequalities of knowledge and power
#corroborates(0.95) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 45 - Dominance over society’s division of learning is surveillance capitalism’s new axial principle
#expands(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 566 - Surveillance is administrative power, mostly indirect via information control
#expands(0.78) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 154