New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 23
You have probably heard the quip: “data is the new oil.” What does that mean, and what does it imply? In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay walks you through the concept, making it clear that data, like oil and gold before it, are not just extremely valuable commodities but can also serve as the basis for the next iteration of our currency. This has profound implications for life in the coming digital era if we don’t get ahead of it now by passing robust data privacy, ownership, and protection legislation. This is truly an issue of global importance!
Psychodata by Ben Williamson
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3 comments
What we’ re usually talking about is data useful in marketing, in selling goods and services. That’s the data collected by social media platforms and why they are “free” to use. However, as James tells us, there is a political aspect to all this. Control agencies can find out who is friendly to the current regime and who in unfriendly to it. And that can lead to policing actions. Look at all the things Corporate would like to police! Energy use? Voting??? And if the policing can be done covertly through indirect means, all the better.
Again, we are dealing with the paradox that a political ideology that started as anti-business (Marx) is allied with business interests and Big Government. What do these people have in common? My guess: They are afraid of each other.
I wonder if the people really have it in them to resist ?
What came to mind is the idea of “human capital.” In business classes etc., you’re made to think that this means valuing human input rather than seeing them as cog in a machine. But now it seems data makes human capital as cogs in a machine again. Mere objects to take stuff from, like human batteries in The Matrix.