Ubiquitous networked computing constitutes an unprecedented form of power unlike prior totalitarianism

Evidence

Although he did not name it, the visionary of ubiquitous computing, Mark Weiser, foresaw the immensity of instrumentarian power as a totalizing societal project. He did so in a way that suggests both its utter lack of precedent and the danger of confounding it with what has gone before: “hundreds of computers in every room, all capable of sensing people near them and linked by high-speed networks have the potential to make totalitarianism up to now seem like sheerest anarchy.” In fact, all those computers are not the means to a digital hyper-totalitarianism. They are, as I think Weiser sensed, the foundation of an unprecedented power that can reshape society in unprecedented ways. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1265

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes instrumentarian power as a distinct species from totalitarianism through Weiser’s prophetic rendering.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s foundational surveillance capitalism theme and earlier chapters on Big Other and instrumentarian power. — connects to: Platforms exceed most nation-states in network size and act as social infrastructures — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 131; Internet platforms gained unprecedented power to manufacture user behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 941; Totalitarianism introduces unprecedented concepts of power and reality (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Surveillance capitalism is a species of power comparable in significance to totalitarianism #corroborates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1699
• Totalitarianism introduces unprecedented concepts of power and reality #corroborates (0.80)
• Utopian techno rhetoric is strategic propaganda that legitimates surveillance capitalism’s drive toward totality #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1284
• Surveillance-capitalism theory understates what digital platforms actually do #complicates (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 905