{"id":12618,"date":"2022-06-27T08:37:24","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T13:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=12618"},"modified":"2022-06-27T08:37:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T13:37:29","slug":"is-there-life-after-big-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/06\/27\/is-there-life-after-big-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there life after &#8216;big data&#8217;?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Big data + authoritarian governance = techno-totalitarianism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At least that&#8217;s the equation we&#8217;re most familiar with, and the route that appears to be being laid out in Xi&#8217;s China, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/25\/technology\/china-surveillance-police.html\">this lengthily researched <em>New York Times <\/em>piece<\/a>. (To be fair, the authors only use &#8220;techno-authoritarianism,&#8221; and the titular and subtitular &#8220;-totalitarianism&#8221; gloss appears to be the editors&#8217; &#8212; which makes me wonder what the authors think of that terminological shift.) The video is worth viewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-new-york-times wp-block-embed-the-new-york-times\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"\u2018An Invisible Cage\u2019: How China Is Policing the Future\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/svc\/oembed\/html\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2022%2F06%2F25%2Ftechnology%2Fchina-surveillance-police.html#?secret=jsMauwgx9I\" data-secret=\"jsMauwgx9I\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If I was currently teaching a course in media and\/or science fiction, the question I would want to raise is whether and how big-data surveillance and analysis technologies might be used for more libertarian and decentralist ends. (We know they are useful for monitoring the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1080\/10455759409358587?casa_token=wZHPqMvftTAAAAAA:uwzXNeaEt9o-auEsng6uxG9Xt3uVRgYzqjc0wQctQoIj6qhI3cY6MSBkwzWEoc3q3XSgn6QmOtpqaw\">state of the Earth<\/a>, since without them we would hardly know the details of climate change.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a group assignment question for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Part A: Envision a big-data surveillance system that would support a decentralized, libertarian-communitarian* society. How would it work? How would it prevent the concentration of power by any one group or class?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part B: Is such a thing possible and feasible? Discuss, with reference to at least two historical cases and two literary or cinematic science-fictional scenarios. (No more than one of the four cases\/scenarios should refer to Chile\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Project_Cybersyn\">Project Cybersyn<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>5,000 words, including diagrams and illustrations<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/25\/technology\/china-surveillance-police.html?ref=oembed\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"224\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/06\/image-400x224.png?resize=400%2C224&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/06\/image.png?resize=400%2C224&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/06\/image.png?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/06\/image.png?resize=275%2C154&amp;ssl=1 275w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/06\/image.png?resize=768%2C431&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/06\/image.png?resize=1536%2C861&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/06\/image.png?resize=2048%2C1148&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/06\/image.png?w=1000 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>*<em>Definitional note<\/em>: Why &#8220;libertarian-communitarian&#8221;? The twin ideals of liberty (freedom, self-determination) and community (altruism, interdependence, multigenerational cohesion) are intended to be desirable enough to cover many of our political preferences, yet paradoxical enough in their combination to indicate why achieving them has been historically challenging. For some, &#8220;libertarian-communitarian&#8221; equates with \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Libertarian_socialism\">libertarian socialism<\/a>,\u201d or even &#8220;social democracy,&#8221; but for others, whose family members may have been hunted down by Stalinists, Maoists, or followers or Pol Pot, &#8220;socialism&#8221; may remain a red-flag word connected to the Communism espoused in those movements. At the very least, however, &#8220;communitarianism&#8221; implies a rejection of libertarian <em>individualism<\/em> as inadequate for building sustainable communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your own preferred &#8220;balance point&#8221; between liberty and community may be closer to the right or the left, but the point of this exercise is to query whether this technology can work against the concentration of <em>centralized<\/em> power <em>over<\/em> individuals <em>and<\/em> communities. My assumption is that power corrupts and that while some coercive power may be necessary to address climate change, its technological instrumentalization is likely to have undesirable political effects.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big data + authoritarian governance = techno-totalitarianism. At least that&#8217;s the equation we&#8217;re most familiar with, and the route that appears to be being laid out in Xi&#8217;s China, according to this lengthily researched New York Times piece. (To be fair, the authors only use &#8220;techno-authoritarianism,&#8221; and the titular and subtitular &#8220;-totalitarianism&#8221; gloss appears to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[691215,4437],"tags":[16863,710297,118994,57,710298,710301,659262,628503,710299,710300],"class_list":["post-12618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics_postpolitics","category-science","tag-authoritarianism","tag-big-data","tag-china","tag-governance","tag-libertarianism","tag-project-cybersyn","tag-surveillance","tag-surveillance-capitalism","tag-surveillance-culture","tag-xi-jinping"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-3hw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11568,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2021\/01\/31\/the-information-coup\/","url_meta":{"origin":12618,"position":0},"title":"The information coup","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Shoshana Zuboff's analysis of \"The Coup We Are Not Talking About,\" published in today's Sunday New York Times, is an essential follow-up to her book Surveillance Capitalism, applying that book's analysis to the situation we are living through. This other coup is the \"epistemic coup\" which, she writes, \"proceeds in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Media ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/29ZuboffOpen-superJumbo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/29ZuboffOpen-superJumbo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/29ZuboffOpen-superJumbo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/29ZuboffOpen-superJumbo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/29ZuboffOpen-superJumbo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10876,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/06\/29\/we-are-surveillance-capital-stock\/","url_meta":{"origin":12618,"position":1},"title":"We are surveillance capital stock","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m reading Shoshana Zuboff's widely lauded The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, which some have placed alongside Thomas Piketty\u2019s Capital in the Twenty-First Century as essential reading for understanding today's global economy. The big conceptual idea I find most useful in it is its insistence that we are in the midst\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Media ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/zuboff.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/zuboff.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/zuboff.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/zuboff.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14279,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/11\/17\/on-dragons-and-firewalls\/","url_meta":{"origin":12618,"position":2},"title":"On dragons and firewalls","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve just returned from a nine-day trip to China, where I spoke at the \u201cInternational Symposium on Ecological Images and Media\u201d at\u00a0Jimei\u00a0University in Xiamen, and lectured at four different universities (Jimei\u00a0University, Xiamen Technological University, Shanghai\u2019s East China Normal University, and Shanghai University). My hosts, including\u00a0Minjiang Scholar and professor Kunyu\u00a0Wang, lead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Media ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/11\/20251108_112806.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/11\/20251108_112806.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/11\/20251108_112806.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/11\/20251108_112806.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/11\/20251108_112806.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/11\/20251108_112806.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11469,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2021\/01\/10\/mob-politics-killer-selfies-and-the-future-of-social-media-an-ecotopian-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":12618,"position":3},"title":"Mob politics, killer selfies, and the future of social media: an ecotopian perspective","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Two points of social media use call for more attention as we make sense of this week's events at the U. S. Capitol. 1) Videos and selfies from Trump's \"Stop the Steal\" rallies are circulating online and making it easier to identify those who participated in the attempted coup at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cultural politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13955,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/03\/06\/end-of-the-interregnum-or-just-the-beginning-of-its-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":12618,"position":4},"title":"End of the Interregnum, or just the beginning of its end?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s looking increasingly likely that the last 35 years or so will come to be seen as an Interregnum between two world orders: the Cold War order, which emerged from the ashes of World War Two, and whatever it is that is beginning to envelop us now. The question is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Manifestos &amp; auguries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Manifestos &amp; auguries","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/manifestos-and-auguries\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/03\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/03\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/03\/image-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/03\/image-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/03\/image-2.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/03\/image-2.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10795,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/06\/07\/the-week-in-a-minute\/","url_meta":{"origin":12618,"position":5},"title":"The week in a minute","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In a week of startling developments, some things still sound like they're from The Onion. Or at least Harper's Findings. They aren't. In a week of police riots capping decades of ethnic violence in a country torn asunder by authoritarianism, a dismal economy, and plague, police responding to a bee\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"America\"","block_context":{"text":"America","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/tag\/america\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12618"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12627,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12618\/revisions\/12627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}