German philosopher thinks digitalization has the fear of leading new totalitarianism According to the interview of German philosopher Markus Gabriel in Asahi newspaper, He mentioned that “A small number of […]
According to the interview of German philosopher Markus Gabriel in Asahi newspaper,
He mentioned that “A small number of technology companies that have not been democratically legitimated now control a larger portion of the society and economy. And citizens have become more accustomed to providing those companies with information. This situation is what I refer to as a “new totalitarianism.””
Probably many people all over the world have used the technology, are mentioned by the philosopher in the interview, without considering this aspect. Therefore, this trend could be accelerated more and more dangerous in the near future.
I can say that it is difficult for me to define totalitarianism as my personal expression so that I would quote its definition from Wikipedia. Based on Wikipedia,
Totalitarianism is a concept for a form of government or political system that prohibits opposition parties, restricts individual opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism. In totalitarian states, political power has often been held by autocrats who employ all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media.
After the arrival of Internet, there are some buzzwords that are related to the connectivity such as Internet of Things, Internet of Everything, and Smart Home. Thanks to technological advancement, we can digitize our physical activities, which means that we can understand our way of life by checking THE data. For example, we can easily check how many steps we walk everyday by using smartphone app. After digitizing our physical activities, we can connect them to other data, and this concept based on the connectivity. Therefore the technology of both digitalization and connectivity gives strong power to few companies for controlling their users. If this fact that the more technology becomes advanced, the more people will be controlled by small number of companies or organization is true, can we say that the fact is desirable?
