Big Tech Sees Like a State
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One of the classic slogans of 1960s protests, found on placards, buttons, and in chants, was: “I am a human being. Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate me.” The phrase referenced a warning on IBM’s punched cards. At one level, it was just a slightly geeky catchphrase about new technology, akin to wearing an “Error 404: Democracy Not Found” t-shirt. But at another level, it represented a deep of anxiety. The people who used this slogan weren’t worried about punch card computers as an abstract force; they were worried about the punch card that had their name and draft number.
This anxiety is part of a long, long process. In Seeing Like a State, the anarchist-leaning historian James C. Scott describes this as the fundamental process of government: governments alter behavior in order to tax, conscript, and prevent the rebellion of their citizens/subjects. Scott uses the term “legibility” to understand this. A fully-legible citizen:
