Feel the Planet: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power
Smartphones have enabled us to sense, visualize and share information about the world we live in. The author addresses how tech companies are empowering people and abuse power. A few corporations have dominated the infrastructure of modem social, political, and economic life. Regular folks use their hand machines to socialize, learn, connect, and have fun, while tech companies extract personal data of users for generating revenue.
The book starts with an analogy between emergence of automobile industry in early 1900s and the recent technological development of smartphones and social media, and the lesson to be learnt here. The author argues that user personal data should not be collected and sold to other companies. And regulation should be in place that fundamentally change the business models of tech companies that depend on user data for marketing and product development. We must also note that any personal data to be used to advance our collective knowledge also diminish the potential gains from big data and machine learning. Besides, corporations are striving to serve the interest of its stockholders, and more regulations could hurt their progress and economy. There should be a balance between the two strategies.
The book largely focuses on users and tech companies, but governments have also used the technology to advance their interests. Evidence suggest that the Russian government influenced the outcome of 2016 U.S. Presidential election, and they are doing that again in the upcoming 2020 presidential elections. Religious extremists have used smartphones as a tool to promote terrorism. Fake news has been promoted in real time to coincide with real news. Census data collected by the government resides in government databases to which other federal agencies like FBI and CIA may have access, and they could potentially harm the interests of the citizens of this country directly or indirectly: Countries like Russia and China have hacked into the government database for political and economic gains.
Technology creates our world; it creates wealth, economy, and our way of living. Does technology, like biological life, evolve? Researchers at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico have concluded that the answer is, Yes! They have been pursuing a revolution in science and economics. Ignoring the boundaries of disciplines, they are searching for novel fundamental ideas, theories, and practices that integrates a full range of scientific inquiries that will help us understand the complexities of reality. Pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions in his book “The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves.” Branching networks are found at every level in biology from a single cell to the ecosystem. Human-made networks could share the same features; and if they don't, then it might be profitable to make them do so! Nature's patterns tend to arise from economical solutions, and this may have happened when matter (non-life) turned into living cell (life) 3.8 billion years ago on this planet! Evolution propagates this flourishing organization. It creates new niches into existing organism or human technology. This respectively creates new creatures or new technology. There is a parallel, according to author Brian Arthur.
The book is arbitrarily organized, and the chapters do not connect well which makes reading a challenge.
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