Technological feudalism: this is Evgeny Morozov's vision on the internet

Feudalism was a type of social organization characterized by unaelite specialized in combat, the feudal lords, who received from their vassals a constant flow of tributes in exchange for protection.In the Middle Ages, that tribute was food and resources like wood. Related

According to Evgeny Morozov, a Belarusian internet researcher and author of 'Big tech CapitalismWelfare or Digital Neofeudalism?' (2018), the society that has been built around the network follows this feudal pattern .But who are the new lords and what taxes are paid? Prepare to see the network in another way...

Who is Evgeny Morozov and why is it relevant?

"The scourge of Silicon Valley", as Morozov is known, It is a vassal without a fief.It goes free.This walking knight pays no tribute to any blazon and fights against everyone.At least with those who take the head out.Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon (nicknamed GAFA), mills that crush our data and they serve as lunch for us by way of announcements.Truly giants who have even been able to change the discourse and political course.Evgeny, the good-natured tone of the GAFA does not convince him.Words like "democratization" are alien to him.Even pernicious.Morozov is a person highly concerned about the protection of personal data .Also by the power accumulated by very few. On a dark side of the network -y we are not talking about the dark web -what this researcher calls "technological feudalism".

Technological feudalism: this is Evgeny Morozov's vision on the internet

Morozov uses a scathing speech lying to make us wake up from the bubble in which we have buried our heads.beyond the addiction to the network or to the smartphones that Moby presented to us as a society phombie . We are delegating control of the technology to a business accrual.Claiming it will cost us more and more.

Data and artificial intelligence: the new fertile land

Evgeny Morozov uses a blunt simile when it comes to addressing large technology companies.If in the past whoever had control over the field's performance had the power, today whoever controls the data has it.To our mind goes the business of Google and even the scandal of Cambridge Analytica, of Facebook. They have the data.But do they share the responsibility?

For Morozov, who declares himself a user of the same applications that criticizes, these brands are like big governments without control by the citizens .Tweets and other messages on social networks, internet searches, Instagram photos...Everything is data provided by users, who apparently have read the terms and conditions (T&C) of the service, but not, because Kindle T&C, for example, requires nine hours of uninterrupted reading.

If we read them with Attention we would realize the value of our data.Google, Amazon, but also Baidu, Yandex and others, use the data to pay their algorithms.These, with artificial intelligence as an arrowhead of modern technology, generate a huge benefit for some brands.In essence, we are raw material suppliers whose data service we consume shortly thereafter .But we are Pay in kind.

Which is not bad.Google works very well as a search engine.Everyone is on Facebook and it is easy to find friends.If you are going to buy something, you will surely find what you are looking for on Amazon.None of this is pernicious per se , until it reaches a critical volume that causes the market capitalization of a service to exceed the gross domestic product (GDP) of several countries .that moment the alarm arises.

Evgeny Morozov was right

Already in 2009 Morozov raised his voice about the "utopia of the Silicon Valley technologies".The good rolling atmosphere that was there It was, in the opinion of this researcher, artificial.Now, a decade later, Morozov admits that he has learned in the process of study of the great technologies, but that already noticed that the utopia that they promised had a price.

Technological feudalism: this is Evgeny Morozov's vision on the internet

This price is often symbolized by referring to George Orwell for his novel '1984 '(written in 1948).However, Evgene thinks that we have surpassed this dystopia in certain fields and that in others we have not yet reached the point.Following this, he states that one of the big problems is that a good part of our infrastructure (not just the physical infrastructure) is highly dependent on the technology of a few .

And there is something worse: culture is too.To visualize it, we can think of Google's SEO algorithm, which for most brands in the world is a basic norm of "behavior" online .Are we aware of what it means to delegate written culture to standards that nin would reputed linguist have approved? It is certainly an important vulnerability.

Interestingly, Morozov declares himself an absolute fan of the same technology that we use every day.What does not convince him is the use of it and how power accumulates in a few hands.What if we share it a little?

Personal private data, public data

In several interviews Morozov has referred to the importance of classifying data well .It is obvious that there is a lot of data that is "ours", understood as belonging to a person, that should not be shared, but there are also certain movements that promulgate that an important part of the data that the big technologies use should Be of everyone.

The patterns of citizenship movement through the city are usually set as an example.It is understood that not individually, but as an impersonal and anonymous set.That data, which the different consistories could use to optimize bus routes and reduce significantly, today they have the technology.

Technological feudalism: this is Evgeny Morozov's vision on the internet

In the collective ideology these latter companies (technology, with emphasis on GAFA) have gone from being utopian companies capable of recreating Heaven on Earth to be cataloged with other less attractive sectors.electricity, meat, technology...And some, because of their monopoly, remember regimes that we do not want to return.

A decade ago Facebook was the panacea and the way to democratize communications.Today is a brand with a bad reputation able to see der our secrets to manipulate elections .Of course, both are biased visions of reality.The truth is that Facebook, Google or Amazon are brands that seek benefits.Evgeny Morozov reminds us that, for some cases, we could reach lose rights as citizens.

Images | Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung, iStock/umesh chandra, Hermann Traub, Educima, Google Inc., iStock/FairytaleDesign

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