Monday, February 14, 2011

Information Revolution

"Each comes to depend on the continuous, normalized, and increasingly centralized surveillance and monitoring of subject populations..." Is this quote for the Time of the Technoculture really true? It is scary to think that we as a collective population are growing more and more ok with the idea that being watched is normal. The internet as we have discussed in class, is monitoring pretty much every key stroke we type into the search bar, and we can hardly walk into a store with out thinking 'big brother' isn't somewhere watching. From the increase in traffic cameras in the sky to being installed on lights- even getting a ticket is now easier than ever.
Every time a crime happens, it seems that we rely on store, or building, or even outside surveillance to show us the situation that occurred. We are giving the authoritative resources of storage and control of information to a higher stranger. However, like the book states, these are the possibilities that we are given in exchange for new developed technologies.
Giddens identified one field that is using surveillance as control which is economic analysis. This idea reminded me of the book: Who Elected the Bankers by Louis W. Pauly (which of course google now has me recorded for searching for the pdf of this book online). The book begins to take issue with the idea of a global economy, and dealing with the fear that would be created by this.
Seeing these ideas in print make me worried to think about what the economy might soon become because of people becoming normalized to the idea of surveillance.

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