ANT100: Lecture_13

The Digital Revolution §

Post-industrial society in the digital age

Human-machine-animal coexistence §

• Purpose of machine: help humans
• But we fear that this might lead to distraction of human itself (Ai, Robots, Frankenstein)
• Animal to human transplants

Cultural effects of digital technology: §

• Social suite - love, friendship, cooperation, and teaching

  • Can AI, robots have it?

  Donna Haraway: Cyborg Manifesto

• Arab Spring: Tunisia: Cliams were made that revolutions there happened because of social media

  • Authorities made use of social media

• Collection big data - huge databases, ideally the totality of information that is transmitted

  • Collected by government (NSA) and private organizations

Surveillance §

• Yuval Hariri - “our brain are hacked”
• ==Explosion==- social media (everyone can broadcast message)
• ==Implosion== - separate different media user to different networks
• Not always a bad thing (ex. Track COVID info)

Democracy, hegemony, surveillance §

• Fragmentation of the public
  • Proliferation of ways to access information
  • The democratization fo information media has led to viral spread of anti-democratic message and other sorts of misinformation

Hegemony [领导权] §

• Before social media

  • Spontaneous consent given by the great masses of the population to the general direction imposed on social life by the dominant fundamental group. This consent is ‘historically’ caused by the ==prestige== which the dominant group enjoys because of its position and function in the world of production.

    • Before they dominate economy, and people would admire them, so give consent to them

    An application of this prestige is the consumption society today

    • People would spend a lot of money in the brand prestige
    • Prestige today is fragmented

• Depends of the affect fo consent

  • Bodily states related to emotion, and which affect society

• Giving consent to expertise is a practice necessity

• ==In a polarized society, there are different sets of people regarded as experts (pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine)==

  • Learn to ask for and to judge evidence

Democracy in the Digital age §

• Alt(ergative)-right
  • Alternative sources of information
  • “Illiberal democracy”
• Anti-elite attacks are often racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-environmentalist (white rebellion)
• Liberal democracy is said to be morally flawed and degenerate

Fear and hope of the digital age §

• Coronavirus will into destroy Homo sapiens, but adds to our fear of dangers beyond control
• ==Being out of control is an affect typical of the technological age==
• Affective structure of society today
  • The negative effects of neoliberalism on job security
  • Stress on the individual causes dissatisfaction, amplified by rapid technological change
  • Loneliness
  • Lack of recognition
  • Feelings of marginality
• Recognition and Marginality - core and periphery
  • Recognition is related to social capital (prestige)
  • Core - rich countries, urban centres
  • Periphery - poorer countries, rural areas
  • People can feel lack of recognition as a group
  • Lack of prestige
  • Look for alternative prestige
  • Can react with anger

Export information and disinformation §

• Disformation - false statements about people
• Conspiracy theories
• Spread form private or secret places
• Amplified by botse(auto sending message) - spared chaos (question prestige)
  • The non-specific goal is to destabilize an enemy