DemonFiren wrote:big data is the only credible threat to democracy in this day and age
Big data is merely the latest manifestation of the age-old threat to democracy- the unequal power relationships that corrode the idea of equal representation.
Consider: if there existed no class of empowered individuals, with their own interests distinct from those of people in general, would we be concerned about the accumulation of data?
Of course not, because the existence and analysis of the data
itself is not what is troubling- it is the idea that a certain class of people have exclusive access to this data, and both the means and motive to use it in their own interests against the interests of others.
One can, after all, imagine a highly transparent yet egalitarian society (a la Eclipse Phase) in which the availability of massive amounts of data about individuals is merely
culturally odd to us, rather than
actively troubling as is the case with big data.
Speaking more in the philosophical abstract- the notion of democracy and the notion of unequal power relationships are fundamentally opposed.
The core notion of democracy is that every person should have an equal say in government.
But an unequal power relationship, by definition, includes the ability to influence or direct how others will act- and there is no compelling reason or way to avoid this being applies to government.
It follows then that anything that gives one person power over another- whether economic, racial, informational, cultural, or forcible- ought to be avoided, or at least minimized to the greatest extent that is possible in practice, if we are committed to the notion that every person ruled over by a government ought have an equal say in that government.
In game, I play the A.I Firmware, the French cyborg C.U.R.I.E, Aubrie Allen, and the lizard scum Skulks-Through-Maintenance.