Instrumentarianism of Tech Firms Different from The Totalitarian Policies Discussion
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In this, the final week of instruction, Professor Rahimi lecturedabout the emergence of digital technology and the ways in which evermore aspects of human existence are being reduced to data. As lastweeks Heidegger reading might put it, our actions and interactions arebeing turned into a standing reserve that can be accessed by largecorporations and used to make money. Your going for a walk becomessomeone in Palo Altos paycheck. Similarly, in your reading from The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,Shoshana Zuboff discusses economies of action, which she defines (inan earlier part of the book) as the processes by which corporations intervenein the state of play in the real world among real people and things.These interventions are designed to enhance certainty by doing things:they nudge, tune, herd, manipulate, and modify behavior. They do this to achieve predictable outcomes and, therefore, competitive advantage in the new markets for future behavior. She gives examples of Facebook experiments and Pokémon Go to illustrate these economies of action.
Heideggerand Zuboff’s dystopianism seem to be in sharp contrast to readings byauthors like Donna Haraway and John Perry Barlow, who consider thepossibilities of a future in which technology might enable us to createnew relationships and think beyond limits and binaries . . .In manyways, this contrast has been repeated from week to week in this class.Weve seen utopian visions of human rationality in Rousseau (andcritiques of societys irrationality in Voltaire) contrasted with frightful visions of rationality untethered by morality in Frankenstein.And weve seen optimistic views of industrial technology and rationalorganization of society in Kapp challenged by philosophers likeHeidegger and Arendt, who saw the inherently inhumane implications ofsuch mechanistic thinking . . .
This final week, I want you to reflect on the Zuboff reading and write about 200-300 words addressing several of the following questions: Zuboffdescribes the ways in which tech companies and other profit-seekingfirms attempt to learn about us and affect our behavior to make aprofit. (This is what she calls instrumatarianism, a method of powerthat knows and shapes human behavior toward others ends.) How is theinstrumentarianism of tech firms different from the totalitarianpolicies of the early 20th century? Do its intellectual origins (inSkinner’s writing) remind you of writers like Bacon or La Mettire? Doyou even think she is right to present events in such dire terms? Canyou think of an example youve read about the illustrates (or counter)her argument?
