From cyberculture to surveillance capitalism: an investigation into the consequences of informatization of human relations

Abstract

This paper consists of a reading and a discussing of the works Cyberculture by Pierre Lévy and The era of surveillance capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff. An analysis of Lévy's expectations on the future development of digital information and communication technologies (DICTs) was performed, comparing them with the most recent perspective expressed in Zuboff's work. Essential for understanding the study are the concepts of cyberculture, cyberspace, collective intelligence, data mining and surveillance capitalism. This research is based on the description of Lévy's projections about the future use of DICTs and their liberating potential and contrasts it with Zuboff's critical perspective, which points to the increase in control and risk of manipulation in the technological society. In the course carried out and presented in this work, we sought to determine the possible reasons that contributed to the change in expectations verified.