#1420 Alexa Is Not Your Friend (Digital vs Democratic Futures)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2021
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 6/1/2021
Today we take a look at the world of surveillance capitalism and the current age of techno-optimism that is just the newest iteration of the age-old effort to consolidate power and wealth by undermining individual freedom and democratic self governance.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Surveillance Capitalism: Shoshana Zuboff Part 1 - Future Hindsight - Air Date 7-16-20
Shoshana Zuboff discusses a world in which technology users are neither customers, employees, nor products. Instead, the raw material for new procedures of manufacturing and sales that define an entirely new economic order: a surveillance economy.
From microscopic "smart dust" tracking devices to DNA-tracing tech and advanced facial recognition software, journalist Sharon Weinberger leads a hair-raising tour through the global, unregulated bazaar of privatized mass surveillance.
Ch. 3: Surveillance Capitalism: Shoshana Zuboff Part 2 - Future Hindsight - Air Date 7-16-20
Shoshana Zuboff discusses a world in which technology users are neither customers, employees, nor products. Instead, the raw material for new procedures of manufacturing and sales that define an entirely new economic order: a surveillance economy.
Ch. 4: Alexa, What's Amazon Doing Inside My Home? - Land of the Giants - Air Date 7-30-19
What’s the downside to letting Alexa run your entire home? And why is Amazon making a microwave oven powered by Alexa?
Ch. 5: Surveillance Capitalism: Shoshana Zuboff Part 3 - Future Hindsight - Air Date 7-16-20
Shoshana Zuboff discusses a world in which technology users are neither customers, employees, nor products. Instead, the raw material for new procedures of manufacturing and sales that define an entirely new economic order: a surveillance economy.
Ch. 6: That Time Disney Built a Creepy Government - Wisecrack - Air Date 1-15-21
Disney World is beloved all over the globe for the pure escapism it offers. But the story behind this fantasy world is a lot weirder, and a whole lot less magical than it might seem.
In Stephen's unfortunate new segment "Uh-Oh," he takes a look at the dangers posed by a Nevada bill that would allow big tech companies to build and govern their own cities without state oversight. What could go wrong?
What does the digital acceleration in this pandemic mean for our future? Shoshana Zuboff spoke with Anthony Gooch.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 9: Steve Durbin — Identity Is Weaponized - ISF Podcast - Air Date 3-29-21
ISF CEO Steve Durbin and producer Tavia Gilbert discuss the ISF’s latest report, Threat Horizon 2023: Security at a Tipping Point. Today, we dig deeper into the report’s second threat: Identity is weaponised.
Ch. 10: Rana Foroohar: The Surveillance Economy - New Economic Thinking - Air Date 8-22-20
Financial Times columnist Rana Foroohar talks to Rob Johnson about how the pandemic opens the door to more surveillance technology from Silicon Valley, but also to a growing consensus on reigning in Wall Street excess.
BONUS:
Ch. 11: Curation Lesson #2: Alternative option explained
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 12: Mere aggregation - Diana
Ch. 13: Use It or Lose It copyrights - Jonathan from Florida
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 12: Final comments to say thanks
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard (https://theobard.bandcamp.com/track/this-fickle-world)
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: Close-up of a single human eye with the faded pattern impression of a microchip around the edges.
Credit: Spying eye | Pixabay
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left Podcast in which we shall take |
| 0:07.4 | a look at the world of surveillance capitalism and the current age of techno-optimism that |
| 0:13.8 | is just the newest iteration of the age-old efforts to consolidate power and wealth by undermining |
| 0:20.7 | individual freedoms and democratic self-governance. |
| 0:24.3 | Clips Today are from Future Hindsight, a TED Talk by Sharon Weinberger, Land of the Giants, |
| 0:31.7 | Wisecrack, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The OECD Podcast, The ISF Podcast, and New Economic Thinking. |
| 0:47.5 | So what does it mean exactly that our human experiences have become a commodity? |
| 0:51.8 | How does it work? |
| 0:52.7 | Private human experience could be translated into data, behavioral data, that those data could |
| 1:02.9 | be analyzed and they could be turned into commodities that could be sold and purchased. |
| 1:11.9 | Let's say you're walking down the street and this is a private human experience. |
| 1:17.1 | And let's say you're smiling, which is also a private human experience. |
| 1:22.4 | Well, there are cameras and sensors now that take your face without your knowledge. |
| 1:28.5 | Therefore, it's a unilateral action that by definition cannot be based on your consent. |
| 1:35.6 | Now, taking something without the other person's knowledge or consent, any eight-year-old would tell you that is stealing. |
| 1:45.1 | So the whole logic of surveillance capitalism begins with this, what I refer to as the original sin |
| 1:53.7 | of theft of stealing. You're back on the street, you're smiling. Your face is taken along with your smile |
| 2:02.0 | and all the little muscles in your face that are creating the specific dynamics of your facial gesture at that moment. |
| 2:10.0 | Now, by taking your face with these sensors and cameras, your face is immediately translated into data. |
| 2:20.0 | In this case, the behavior of the muscles in your face. Those data are fed into complex systems of supply chains |
| 2:29.8 | that are picking up, experience and rendering it as data from all kinds of different domains. |
| 2:36.4 | Your car, your home, your walk on the street, your telephone call, your location, etc., etc. |
... |
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