Episode 79
Surveillance Capitalism in the Age of the Unprecedented | Shoshana Zuboff
Episode 79
Shoshana Zuboff
Surveillance Capitalism in the Age of the Unprecedented | Shoshana Zuboff
summary
In this week’s episode of Hidden Forces, Demetri speaks with Shoshana Zuboff, whose career has been devoted to the study of the rise of the digital, its individual, organizational, and social consequences, and its relationship to the history and future of capitalism.
In 1609, while in search of a rumored, northeast passage to Asia on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, the English explorer and navigator Henry Hudson, landed on what is modern day New York City.
Though written accounts exist of Hudson’s encounters with local tribes, native accounts have been handed down to us through oral tradition, often transcribed much later by missionaries and settlers. In 1765, a Moravian missionary who lived for many years among the Delaware and Mohican tribes recorded a native account of the first meeting:
“A long time ago, some Indians who had been out fishing, where the sea widens, spied at a great distance something remarkably large swimming or floating on the water. It was agreed among those who were spectators, that as this phenomenon moved towards the land, it would be well to inform all the Indians on the inhabited islands. Chiefs, from scattered tribes who arrived in numbers, concluded the strange appearance to be a large canoe or house, in which the great Supreme Being himself was coming to visit them.“
Such descriptions by native peoples of their first encounters with white settlers were common throughout the Americas. The first man to bring news to the great Aztec King Montezuma of Spanish ships described what he saw from the Gulf coast as “towers or small mountains floating on the waves of the sea.” In other accounts, natives looked from the shore and thought the awesome, approaching ships were giant, white seabirds or floating islands. There are even theories that the Arawak – the first tribe to encounter Columbus’ ships off the coast of Hispaniola – could at first, see only their ripples across the horizon. They were unable to picture what was for them, unprecedented. Unimagined. Alien.
What all these people had in common was that they were unable to name, let alone recognize a force of creative destruction so vast and boundless that it would make their worlds unrecognizable, their homes uninhabitable, and their lives unlivable. They were unable to see the ships and their crew for what they were – the vessels of conquerors, pillagers, and looters of unsullied lands. Unable to name them, they welcomed them, agents of their own annihilation.
This week, on Hidden Forces, we explore the unprecedented force of surveillance capitalism – how it threatens to dispossess us of our experiences, our sanctuaries, and our very lives.
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
bio
Shoshana Zuboff joined the Harvard Business School faculty in 1981. One of the first tenured women at the school, she was the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration. In 2014 and 2015 she was a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Her career has been devoted to the study of the rise of the digital, its individual, organizational, and social consequences, and its relationship to the history and future of capitalism. She also founded and led the executive education program, Odyssey: School for the Second Half of Life.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quarum ambarum rerum cum medicinam pollicetur, luxuriae licentiam pollicetur. Terram, mihi crede, ea lanx et maria deprimet. Nondum autem explanatum satis, erat, quid maxime natura vellet. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Non enim, si omnia non sequebatur, idcirco non erat ortus illinc. Luxuriam non reprehendit, modo sit vacua infinita cupiditate et timore.
Quid de Pythagora? Fortemne possumus dicere eundem illum Torquatum? Idem fecisset Epicurus, si sententiam hanc, quae nunc Hieronymi est, coniunxisset cum Aristippi vetere sententia. Qua ex cognitione facilior facta est investigatio rerum occultissimarum. Quae animi affectio suum cuique tribuens atque hanc, quam dico. Nec vero intermittunt aut admirationem earum rerum, quae sunt ab antiquis repertae, aut investigationem novarum. Nam quid possumus facere melius?
Itaque primos congressus copulationesque et consuetudinum instituendarum voluntates fieri propter voluptatem; Nec vero sum nescius esse utilitatem in historia, non modo voluptatem. Bona autem corporis huic sunt, quod posterius posui, similiora. Primum in nostrane potestate est, quid meminerimus? Expressa vero in iis aetatibus, quae iam confirmatae sunt. Invidiosum nomen est, infame, suspectum.
Aliter enim explicari, quod quaeritur, non potest. Qua tu etiam inprudens utebare non numquam. Philosophi autem in suis lectulis plerumque moriuntur. Quid enim de amicitia statueris utilitatis causa expetenda vides. Illis videtur, qui illud non dubitant bonum dicere -; Tu enim ista lenius, hic Stoicorum more nos vexat. Qua igitur re ab deo vincitur, si aeternitate non vincitur?
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cum id fugiunt, re eadem defendunt, quae Peripatetici, verba. Theophrasti igitur, inquit, tibi liber ille placet de beata vita? Qua ex cognitione facilior facta est investigatio rerum occultissimarum. Hinc ceteri particulas arripere conati suam quisque videro voluit afferre sententiam.
Videmusne ut pueri ne verberibus quidem a contemplandis rebus perquirendisque deterreantur? Ergo hoc quidem apparet, nos ad agendum esse natos. Dulce amarum, leve asperum, prope longe, stare movere, quadratum rotundum. Sed id ne cogitari quidem potest quale sit, ut non repugnet ipsum sibi. Naturales divitias dixit parabiles esse, quod parvo esset natura contenta.
Satis est tibi in te, satis in legibus, satis in mediocribus amicitiis praesidii. Itaque hic ipse iam pridem est reiectus; Quis istud possit, inquit, negare? Utrum igitur tibi litteram videor an totas paginas commovere? Experiamur igitur, inquit, etsi habet haec Stoicorum ratio difficilius quiddam et obscurius. Sequitur disserendi ratio cognitioque naturae; Isto modo, ne si avia quidem eius nata non esset. Eadem nunc mea adversum te oratio est. Illud quaero, quid ei, qui in voluptate summum bonum ponat, consentaneum sit dicere.
Vide ne ista sint Manliana vestra aut maiora etiam, si imperes quod facere non possim. Nunc omni virtuti vitium contrario nomine opponitur. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Non autem hoc: igitur ne illud quidem. Nos autem non solum beatae vitae istam esse oblectationem videmus, sed etiam levamentum miseriarum. Alterum significari idem, ut si diceretur, officia media omnia aut pleraque servantem vivere. Quid enim? Videamus animi partes, quarum est conspectus illustrior;
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Occultum facinus esse potuerit, gaudebit; Quae diligentissime contra Aristonem dicuntur a Chryippo. Octavio fuit, cum illam severitatem in eo filio adhibuit, quem in adoptionem D. Sic consequentibus vestris sublatis prima tolluntur. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Omnia contraria, quos etiam insanos esse vultis.
Ego vero volo in virtute vim esse quam maximam; Ne amores quidem sanctos a sapiente alienos esse arbitrantur. Expectoque quid ad id, quod quaerebam, respondeas. Verum tamen cum de rebus grandioribus dicas, ipsae res verba rapiunt; Non quaeritur autem quid naturae tuae consentaneum sit, sed quid disciplinae.
Ergo hoc quidem apparet, nos ad agendum esse natos. Expectoque quid ad id, quod quaerebam, respondeas. Qua tu etiam inprudens utebare non numquam. Laboro autem non sine causa; Quamquam ab iis philosophiam et omnes ingenuas disciplinas habemus; Sed ad haec, nisi molestum est, habeo quae velim.
Sin dicit obscurari quaedam nec apparere, quia valde parva sint, nos quoque concedimus; Sed haec quidem liberius ab eo dicuntur et saepius. Nec hoc ille non vidit, sed verborum magnificentia est et gloria delectatus. Traditur, inquit, ab Epicuro ratio neglegendi doloris. Quid loquor de nobis, qui ad laudem et ad decus nati, suscepti, instituti sumus? Diodorus, eius auditor, adiungit ad honestatem vacuitatem doloris. Quamquam ab iis philosophiam et omnes ingenuas disciplinas habemus; Tu autem negas fortem esse quemquam posse, qui dolorem malum putet.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. At miser, si in flagitiosa et vitiosa vita afflueret voluptatibus. Ille vero, si insipiens-quo certe, quoniam tyrannus -, numquam beatus; Miserum hominem! Si dolor summum malum est, dici aliter non potest. Atqui haec patefactio quasi rerum opertarum, cum quid quidque sit aperitur, definitio est. Ex quo intellegitur officium medium quiddam esse, quod neque in bonis ponatur neque in contrariis. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Laelius clamores sofòw ille so lebat Edere compellans gumias ex ordine nostros. Conferam avum tuum Drusum cum C. Sin tantum modo ad indicia veteris memoriae cognoscenda, curiosorum. Quicquid porro animo cernimus, id omne oritur a sensibus;
Quarum ambarum rerum cum medicinam pollicetur, luxuriae licentiam pollicetur. Atque ab his initiis profecti omnium virtutum et originem et progressionem persecuti sunt. In quibus doctissimi illi veteres inesse quiddam caeleste et divinum putaverunt. Mene ergo et Triarium dignos existimas, apud quos turpiter loquare? Quae similitudo in genere etiam humano apparet. An dubium est, quin virtus ita maximam partem optineat in rebus humanis, ut reliquas obruat?
Graece donan, Latine voluptatem vocant. Ut id aliis narrare gestiant?
Vulgo enim dicitur: Iucundi acti labores, nec male Euripidesconcludam, si potero, Latine; Color egregius, integra valitudo, summa gratia, vita denique conferta voluptatum omnium varietate. Tum mihi Piso: Quid ergo? At ille pellit, qui permulcet sensum voluptate. Itaque et manendi in vita et migrandi ratio omnis iis rebus, quas supra dixi, metienda. Omnia contraria, quos etiam insanos esse vultis. Quod si ita sit, cur opera philosophiae sit danda nescio. Roges enim Aristonem, bonane ei videantur haec: vacuitas doloris, divitiae, valitudo;