Abstract
Society, industry, and technology are inseparable from one another. Technology transforms the material world. Individuals adopt technology for its convenience, which dictates both how and to what extent society embeds technology within its social fabric. Over the years, computers have developed so much so they have defined the 21st century as the digital era. Digital technologies have penetrated many industries, permeating much of social life and capital. In the meanwhile, globally, industry leaders continue to accumulate unprecedented wealth and social influence; short-circuiting demand for convenience per individual, industry has exploited the asymmetrical information landscape it has both established and arguably forced upon society. This has prompted industry to channel more of its resources towards digital surveillance and for-profit behavioral subjugation, laying the groundwork for today’s surveillance economy. Through my research, I examine propositions aiming to address the asymmetric information landscape the Web presently fosters. Comparing inventor of the Web Tim Berners Lee’s Solid, networking engineer Arthur Brock’s Holochain, and Stanford Senior Fellow Francis Fukuyama’s proposed concept of Middleware, my research examines various modes and corresponding visions of combatting shared concerns as to the Web’s foundational structure and societal function. More importantly, through my research, I explore the potential for integrating various approaches to reforming the Web and the institutional and individual means necessary to facilitate any such reform. My research concludes — radical, structural, and therefore both digital, social, and material, reforms remain paramount to preserving the function and longevity of democracy, bolstering national security, and fundamentally negating global inequality.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus: Trust, Surveillance, Democracy
KEYWORDS
Surveillance Capitalism, Democracy, Digital Automation, Digital Mediation, Big Tech
