EXPERT OPINION
Where from Here? We must recognize and speak out when the digital dream is devaluing the power and capability of our institutions of global order, national protection and sovereignty, and the primacy of the individual citizen. By Prashant Shukle
E
ach generation responds to the great threats and opportunities of its time and place. For my father, Indian Independence (1947) and World War II (1939-45) shaped his view of the world, and how his family and friends were to live. It also meant where they could live, grow and benefit in a reconstructed world order, where institutions of government, the rule of law, the emergence of human rights and individual rights, and a stable and just economic order were fundamental to human existence. For many decades and not quite a century, we have all benefitted from the sacrifice and efforts of the “greatest generation”. Approximately 80 years have passed and as we are preparing to enter the third decade of the 21st century, we are experiencing a global crisis in the form of a pandemic that has shocked the existing economic order, infected millions of people worldwide, exposed deep stresses within the institutional apparatuses of some governments, and uncovered the vulnerability and independence of multilateral institutions.
Emergence of surveillance capitalism Within this world, geospatial technologies and data have flourished. From places in Space, the sky, on the ground, and in the air, technologies were deployed to address national ambitions as
well as individual well-being. For much of the 20th century, emphasis on distributive capitalism helped create a rising tide that lifted many from poverty and sickness and into better (although admittedly far from perfect) states of existence. These technologies were also at play during the COVID-19 pandemic, as thousands of applications were developed and deployed to track the incidence of the virus. Geospatial leaders, particularly in the private sector, spoke glowingly of how their technologies were able to respond to the great threat of our time. But few, if any, spoke about the risk of these “human” focused applications to individual citizens and the post-war balance between the need for collective action and protection of individual rights.
Some observers of capitalist economies and the intersection of geospatial technologies have advanced the term “surveillance capitalism” to describe
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