The Impact of Surveillance on Democracy

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Three days before lockdown I was walking around botter and there were boomers pushing shopping trolleys full of toilet paper. There's like no way you can deny this is Happening right because it's a convolution of all of these things at the same time Sorry the point i'm trying to make is the crisis side the fact that it might all collapse is terrifying enough of its own And this is a similar to how I kind of approach what i'm writing and talking about surveillance as well, which is the other thing i talk about It's very easy to go with the extreme examples and scare people about surveillance but they're actually more fundamental by surveillance and shipping complexity.

Paris Marx is joined by Tim Maughan to discuss the exploitative infrastructures that make the modern world possible, how complex technological systems rob us of our power to control our collective destiny, and why predicting trends isn’t hard when you understand capitalism.

Tim Maughan is the author of “Infinite Detail” and “Ghost Hardware.” He’s also written for BBC Future, New Scientist, and Motherboard, and is writing a new column for OneZero. Follow Tim on Twitter as @timmaughan.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Read about the trip Tim took with Unknown Fields on a container ship, at manufacturing sites in China, and near a toxic lake in Inner Mongolia that’s the product of mining rare-earth minerals.
Read the first article in Tim’s new column, No One’s Driving.
Kim Stanley Robinson says billionaire space visions are “just a fantasy of our culture right now.”
Media mentioned by Tim: Judge Dredd comics, The Running Man, RoboCop, Rollerball, and Ad Astra.

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