Big Data Big Issues E07: Surveillance Capitalism Part 3 Instrumentarian Ideology

The third installment of a three part series covering Shoshana Zuboff's book "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism." Here, we focus on the way Zuboff describes the worldview of big data's most powerful figures. We mention the key figure in her book named Alex Pentland. We also take a brief visit to Peter Joesph's book "The New Human Rights Movement" and compare his economic vision with Pentland's techno-utopia.
How has the concentration of power changed in the last 20 years? Zuboff argues that surveillance capitalism has given rise to a new form of power called 'instrumentarianism.' This power and its related ideology is driven by the idea that, because humans are irrational and make many bad decisions, powerful organizations are ethically obligated to apply behavioral control techniques which encourage collective well-being. By predicting bad behavior and stopping it, or by encouraging good behavior, big data technologies could transform the world as we know it. This comes at the price of individual agency and privacy.
Zuboff outlines this worldview and offers a scathing criticism.