Review: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
First off, I'm aware of the irony in writing and posting this review online through an Amazon product (GoodReads) and a Google product (Blogger) and how in doing so, I am further contributing to the exact problem and concern that Zuboff is offering. But that doesn't matter cause if you are on such a platform, you really need to read this powerful (though massive) book. The central argument is that the move into the digital realm created an opportunity for companies to capture what she refers to as "behavioral surplus." This surplus comes in the forms of being able to completely track all behaviors of people when they move into the online world (through clicks, time on sites, scrolling, etc) and being able to use such surplus as means of testing and manipulating users down certain pathways; often unknowingly and often for the purpose of generating more revenue for companies. Ultimately, Zuboff is arguing that the move into the digital has turned humans into lab rats, constantly manipulated and used in the purpose of furthering the cache of the lab scientists, while the rats are often going about what they assume is their own business. If this idea feels overwhelming or scary, then you're on the right track. Zuboff wants readers to understand the depth and the degree to which companies nad the many thought leaders (such as Alex Pentland) who are offering such techno-utopias and what we can discover (or rather, control) about humanity is already enacted to a degree that we should find disturbing. Her work is so much more than just a critique of technology though but a complex exploration of how capitalism as an economic force has increasingly become coercive in ways that are violent to the body and mind. It's hard not to read her work and wonder where all of this will lead. Her work is one of those books that make you feel frustrated and maybe helpless but that you know you are the better for having read.
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