人類往後面對的挑戰,是在數位化更加普及之後,國際公司集團將有能力預測並控制我們的行為,這種前所未有的權力形式稱為「監控資本主義」。
哈佛大學教授Shoshana Zuboff 擁有跨學科領域知識的廣度與深度,使她能夠透過社會、政治、商業和科技等不同面向中掌握我們時代所發生的變化。我們正處於一個急迫的關鍵時刻,夾身於高科技產業公司與政府的巨大力量之中,並受制於監視資本主義的隱藏型經濟邏輯,透過機器學習取得的知識,嘗試塑造並控制人類的生活。
這些早已處於進行式的發展,將改寫人類經濟運作的基本原理,財富不再來自商品服務的交換、不來自勞工被剝削的生產勞動剩餘價值;在監控資本主義世代中,價值來自隨著理解人類所有行為,因而取得的衍生知識Behavioral Surplus,讓企業得以建立模型,預測,引導我們的行為獲利。這種方式是否會威脅到個人自治與民主權利,並造成新的社會不平等模式?又或是,數位化時代可以承諾個人賦權和民主化?
在這個監督資本主義的時代既不是一個關於危險和衰弱的故事,也不是一個數位童話故事。相反的,它為資本主義的發展提供了深刻理性和令人回味的思考角度,這將決定二十一世紀資訊文明的意義。眼前的問題反而在於,我們究竟會是成為資訊和機器的主人,還是奴隸?(文 / 博客來編譯)
The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior.
In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth. Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new "behavioral futures markets," where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new "means of behavioral modification." The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a "Big Other" operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff’s comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled "hive" of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit -- at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future -- if we let it.