Contemporary Utopia
A world dominated by scientific advancements has been a pivotal point for multiple utopic ideas time and time again. The idea has been a major plot point for many literary pieces, movies, and television shows. Investigative journalist and author; Yasha Levine, also grew up with similar notions which he mentions in an interview.
“We fled a failed Utopia (Soviet Union), communism had
failed…when we came to San Francisco we found out that a new utopia was at
hand, the internet was about to take place…with the promise that it would
achieve all.”
However, it did not take long for Levine to face an entirely
opposite reality. He states in his book Surveillance Valley: The Secret
Military History of the Internet, that internet was not set up as a tool for
liberation or utopia but for surveillance purposes just like a radar would
surveil the borders of America. The modern day internet started out as ARPANET;
a tool for political an social control set up by American intelligence
agencies.
Shoshana Zuboff's writings further build up the ideas laid out by Levine. Zuboff delves into how global tech companies such as Google and Facebook persuaded people to give up their privacy in return for convenience. Such data gathered by these companies does not simply predict one’s behavior but also plays a key role in order to modify it. This has had disastrous consequences for democracy and freedom. In one particular interview Zuboff presents a very interesting analogy where she links the global situation to Alice in Wonderland.
“Two decades ago we were all Alice, we encountered the white
rabbit who was rushing down a hole and we rushed after him into the wonderland.
In wonderland we learnt that we can search google, but also that google searches
us.”
From what I recall of Yasha Levine's talks (unfortunately I have not read the book itself) there is a good bit more (and a good bit more ominous) that he says about surveillance. My advice would be this: Do not mix these 2 authors together. Take each one separately and take an in-depth look at what they say. My personal take on Zubov is that she might be a "gatekeeper" of sorts. Yes, what she does say is very relevant, but there is a good bit that she doesn't say. And what she doesn't say, at least to me, is even more relevant. And, again I listened to his talks years ago and may be getting confused here with some other stuff that I heard or read, but Yasha Levine from what I recall, cuts quite a bit deeper to the bone.
ReplyDeleteBut, now that I am thinking a bit more, it may actually be a better idea to take back a big step and look at all of this from a wider angle, more historically. And there 2 books might really help: The first is The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. The book was written in the early 1950s, but it appears to resonate extraordinarily well with what is unfolding in our contemporary times. Here are some quotes from it that will give you an idea of its overall discussion:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/23497-the-origins-of-totalitarianism
And here is the wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Totalitarianism
The second book is The Crowd by Gustave LeBon. It is said that Arendt was greatly inspired by LeBon btw:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Le_Bon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crowd:_A_Study_of_the_Popular_Mind
https://www.azquotes.com/author/20796-Gustave_Le_Bon
When you get a broad overview like what you would get from reading these seminal books, it should become much easier to contextualize where the whole idea for internet censorship is coming from. It is a part of a much bigger whole which is mass media (for which it may be a very good idea to look at Marshall McLuhan) which in its turn is part of an even wider "zeitgeist".