Law in the Internet Society

The Internet, Power, and Social Obligation

-- By ShayBanerjee - 10 Dec 2015

Introduction

The proliferation of the Internet over the last two decades – like the invention of agriculture, the drawing of the written word, and the rise of industrial capitalism – is a historically disruptive techno-cultural development that is fundamentally reorienting the contours of human life. In this brave new world, the manner in which power operates is unprecedented– it is subtle, decentralized, and uncontained. If the primary responsibility of civilization is to regulate power, the extant generation must respond effectively to these new dynamics. How will we punish bad behavior and enforce social norms? What are the duties and rights of ordinary citizens, and what values must those obligations serve? Our species has asked itself these questions many times over 10,000 years. Yet at each inflection point, the answers have changed.

Situating Power in the Internet Society

The Ontology of Power

Before we regulate power, we must understand its conceptual geography. First, power is socially constructed, possessing no independent form. When an actor wields power, that power can only be defined in relation to the object on which it is exercised. Second, power is heterogeneous and fluid – it circulates through people, who often act as relays or serve as both subject and object. Third, power can either be coercive or non-coercive. Power is exercised through violence, but also through ideological constructions that influence beliefs, perceptions, and values. Fourth, power is not a means; it is an end. History is replete with examples of those in power exhibiting hypocrisy, abandoning principles, and deceiving others – all to maintain a grip on power. The objective of power is power.

What all this means is that the study of power must begin locally. Its essence is not in the halls of government or any corporate headquarters, but at the outer limits of society– in the seemingly ordinary ways that power reshapes human activities at the lowest level, whether in the way we drive cars, or purchase groceries, or, indeed, interact with a computer screen. Online, power acts on us constantly – through advertisements, articles, the order of search listings, and the like. Increasingly, the cultural material that happens to be presented to us in the digital world is reshaping our belief systems and economic activity. If fully rational and conscious decision-making is indispensable to human freedom (hint: it is), we must not allow those who control these levers to prey on our cognitive-affective frameworks.

The Information Epoch

The emergence of the Internet is creating a revolutionary shift in the operation of power. Under feudalism, power primarily acted through control of the land: lords exerted complete and total dominance over the serfs and resources residing under their domain. Under capitalism, power operates through money-capital tied to commodity production: the wealthy affect human behavior and resource distribution by investing in labor and capital markets. In the Internet society, however, the currency of power is data and the mechanism by which it operates is surveillance. The more data an actor controls, the more it can manipulate human activity, reconstitute belief systems, and affect distribution patterns.

The importance of this change cannot be overstated. In the Internet universe, data *is* power. At any moment, Mark Zuckerberg could, if he so chose, decide the fate of businesses, change the reading material of hundreds of millions of people, and alter the outcome of an election. Of course this man will give away 99% of his wealth. What are green pieces of paper worth to him? He already has more power than Warren Buffet could ever dream about, and it will cost him not a penny to maintain it.

Searching for an Answer

The corporate data miners have, for now, used their newfound power primarily to affect shopping behavior and leisure activities. Yet even this seemingly innocuous task is incredibly damaging in a rapidly changing world. 21st-century civilization is facing a stampede of cataclysms —persistent unemployment, violent extremism, anthropogenic climate change, and the ballooning cost of higher education. In the face of these problems, we are fostering a generation that struggles to think creatively. Instead of solving problems together as citizens of human society, we are distracting ourselves with consumer fetishes, Buzzfeed quizzes, and news entertainment. The data miners will never help us find transformative solutions, but are more than willing to exploit our habits, emotions, and unconscious triggers for their own gain.

Will the nation-state save us? This organ functioned well in the industrial age, but increasingly it appears unable to regulate power in a decentralized, globalized, and data-centric world. This shortcoming could be tied to any of the 21st-century problems described above, but none better than the ongoing struggle between the American government and ISIS. Traditional tactics will simply not defeat an enemy tied together by globalized networks and possessing no centralized base of operations. Government surveillance is also not working, precisely because sophisticated actors know how to protect their data. Instead, the best way to shut down a decentralized enemy is to interrupt their communication networks. Denial-of service attacks have proven an effective weapon, but for that solution to be comprehensive, there must be more individuals attacking ISIS websites than combatants making new ones. Nation-states will never have sufficient manpower to fight this battle. The task falls on ordinary citizens – hacktivists – acting with clear mind and a sense of duty.

Conclusion

The mechanics of power have changed, and sometimes the simplest description is the most accurate. We are rapidly entering an age of direct democracy, and the struggle for the human soul is quickly devolving into a war of numbers and know-how. No longer can we rely on governments to protect our species from mindless violence, environmental degradation, and corruption. Many citizens have already gotten the message, and are learning the technical skills necessary to protect their data, reclaim their thought-flow, and perform their obligations to human society. Others just finished a quiz telling them which “Game of Thrones” character they most resemble.

Soon, we will see if this great experiment we call “human civilization” is going to work. I do not how it will play out, but someday future generations will.


 

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r4 - 09 Jan 2016 - 23:22:06 - ShayBanerjee
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