False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

The invasive, all-controlling future of 
surveillance capitalism doesn’t have to be 
seen as inevitable.
In 1948, two books came out. One was B. F. 
Skinner’s Walden Two. This presented his 
version of a utopian world where extreme 
behaviorism was understood and accepted, and 
people stopped concerning themselves with the 
silly illusion of personal freedom. The second 
book was George Orwell’s 1984, which also 
offered a look at a world without personal 
freedom. But rather than presenting it as a 
utopia, Orwell clearly saw it as a dystopia.
One of these books, Walden Two, was widely 
panned by critics upon its release, while the 
other continues to be a painfully relevant 
warning for what our world could look like if we 
give up too much control to those in positions of 
power.
The key message here is: The invasive, all-
controlling future of surveillance capitalism 
doesn’t have to be seen as inevitable.
Despite the warnings in Orwell’s book, the 
purveyors of surveillance capitalism want to be 

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in our homes, cars, stores, and workplaces, 
monitoring everything we say and do. From their 
perspective, this would allow for all kinds of 
conveniences.
One of the more popular examples in Google’s 
vision of utopia is its new car contract. Under 
this contract, if you miss a car payment, your car 
will automatically stop working. No need for 
annoying paperwork or the hassle of sending 
someone to see what’s going on with you. 
Everything can be automated. 
Never mind the glaring questions about the 
driver and how a sudden stoppage like this 
might separate a parent from her child or 
prevent someone from leaving a dangerous 
situation. Just think about how much 
bureaucracy we’d be able to bypass!
These kinds of automated contracts are 
something surveillance capitalists like to 
describe as inevitable. But the truth is, none of 
these things are inevitable. 
Recently, we got a better look at what’s 
considered standard operating procedure at 
Facebook. In 2018, it was revealed that they’d 
given large amounts of personal data to 
Cambridge Analytica, a company that used the 
information to microtarget voters with a 
campaign of misinformation.
This has raised some troubling questions about 
the state of democracy today and the dangers 
that arise when the keepers of information are 
given free rein to collect whatever they want 
from us and put it to whatever use they see fit.