4 minute read
Where from Here?
from Road to Recovery
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 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 the world, and how his family and friends were admittedly far from perfect) states of existence. to live. It also meant where they could live, grow These technologies were also at play during the and benefit in a reconstructed world order, where COVID-19 pandemic, as thousands of applications institutions of government, the rule of law, the were developed and deployed to track the inciemergence of human rights and individual rights, dence of the virus. Geospatial leaders, particularly and a stable and just economic order were fundain the private sector, spoke glowingly of how their mental to human existence. For many decades and technologies were able to respond to the great not quite a century, we have all benefitted from the threat of our time. But few, if any, spoke about the sacrifice and efforts of the “greatest generation”. risk of these “human” focused applications to indi
Approximately 80 years have passed and as we the need for collective action and protection of are preparing to enter the third decade of the 21st individual rights. century, we are experiencing a global crisis in the form of a pandemic that has shocked the existing Some observers of economic order, infected millions of people worldcapitalist economies wide, exposed deep stresses within the institutional and the intersecapparatuses of some governments, and uncovered tion of geospatial the vulnerability and independence of multilateral technologies have institutions. advanced the term Emergence of surveillance capitalism talism” to describe 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 vidual citizens and the post-war balance between “surveillance capi
the silent and unspoken threat emanating from the grand global geospatial opportunity of the 21st century. Massive volumes of data are being created and shared via a wide variety of technology platforms. Data entrepreneurs have been able to analyze and monetize reams of data, including data about individuals, to push individual consumer behavior towards profitable outcomes. Data activists are employing technology and data to disrupt existing social and economic paradigms, using the ability to attract and configure news and narratives to incite reactionary politics and thinking.
Supremacy in the new world order In such an environment, facts matter little and emotions matter more — leaving the politics of passion and the decline of reason.
Fertile ground is thus being tilled for nationalistic and xenophobic politics. When complex location analytics and data are accessed by rogue nation-state actors, they are able to target local populations and disrupt political systems, representative politics, the inviolable principles of sovereignty of nation states, and the supremacy of the citizen. Supremacy in this new world order rests with those who own the machinery and data associated with surveillance capitalism.
Fundamentally, it bears note that surveillance capitalism is also skewed towards rich nations and multinational corporations, the latter who owe their allegiance to neither democracy nor citizens. Their allegiance rests with the accumulation of profit and capital, and heralds a new age where the data is rapidly being deployed as the lingua franca of technological imperialism. It is conferring to those owning the technology greater economic, social, political knowledge and power in the pursuit of selfish interest.
The post-Covid economic and social order should be at the center of the use of the technology and data which we showcase as having the power to save humanity. It is noteworthy that this technology and data are being quietly and aggressively monetized. 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.
Courtesy: Harvard Business School Some observers of capitalist economies and the intersection of geospatial technologies have advanced the term ‘surveillance capitalism’ to describe the silent and unspoken threat emanating from the grand global geospatial opportunity of the 21st century
It is time for our collective voices to emerge — not simply to glorify dashboards and electronic maps, but to ensure that our generation rises to meet the challenges. It also may require us to point out that those grand challenges are not the ones we are showcasing.
Prashant Shukle is currently head of the Global Geospatial Group and was the Director-General of the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation from 2009 to 2019.
