A Philosophical Inquiry Into Surveillance Capitalism

Due to the constant development of modern digital technology and surveillance society,the impact of "surveillance capitalism" as a new social and economic order on the development of the current era has become increasingly evident."Surveillance" has been a characteristic element of surveillance capitalism since pre-modern period and has continuously expanded and deepened with the development of modern society.Foucault points out through the concept of "panopticon" that the essence of capitalist society is a "disciplinary society" formed under the constant infiltration of surveillance mechanisms,and the whole society achieves manipulation and control of individuals through the all-pervasive capitalist power structure.Giddens sees surveillance mechanisms as a major institutional dimension of modernity and proposes that surveillance mechanisms,under the continuous intertwining and influence of capitalism,industrialism,and military forces,constitute the main framework of modern society.Therefore,at the structural level of society,surveillance has become a way of realizing the power of domination and an important component of capitalist society.Zuboff’s proposal and discourse on "surveillance capitalism" reveal its main capital logic: internet companies transform "behavioral surplus" generated by users’ online activities into data commodities for sale,then predict and guide people’s future commercial behaviors using algorithmic technology,ultimately achieving profits.This article believes that contemporary surveillance capitalism mainly has four main dimensions: digitalization,intelligence,capitalization,and monopolization,and the digital economy and consumer social forms behind surveillance have gradually formed a value form dominated by "digital traffic",creating "false consumption demands" and further exacerbating the crisis of the surveillance capitalist society.The combination of capitalism and ubiquitous digital surveillance has,on the one hand,led to the leakage of individual privacy and a crisis of subjectivity,and on the other hand,brought about a "digital divide",making the problem of trust between different groups increasingly evident.From the perspective of the world risk society,digital surveillance has shifted from regional,traditional surveillance to global,intelligent surveillance,and the goal of surveillance has also shifted from seizing economic control to competing for the discourse power of values and ideologies.The new imperialism based on surveillance capitalism is gradually forming,and new capital appreciation logic,ideological logic,and power politics logic are increasingly penetrating the essence of society under the blessing of global digital surveillance.To surpass surveillance capitalism,it is not only necessary to expose and criticize the hidden alienating and exploitative methods of the capitalist order from the perspective of Marxism and political economy,but also to focus on the development of the digital age and construct a free and equal community.The reality of alienation and exploitation is rooted in the private ownership of capitalism,which provides the soil for capitalists to monopolize advanced digital technology and possess massive data resources.To break this underlying logic,it is necessary to jointly consider the possibility of realizing "digital communism" from both theoretical and practical perspectives.In theory,the concept of the "community with shared future for mankind" provides a theoretical basis for the construction of a contemporary digital community,which is the core idea of promoting global cooperation and imagining the future shape of "digital communism" at the current stage.In practice,the emergence of Web 3.0 technology provides technical support for digital communities.Decentralized data sharing and data autonomy have extremely important practical significance for us to obtain the technical power to break free from capitalist domination in the near future.In summary,thinking about the digital community is about deepening our understanding of the essence of the digital technology era,which is the first step in realizing the wish for "digital ".Only by rebuilding a free and equal community can we turn our communist ideal into reality and ultimately achieve human liberation.