Book: Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshona Zuboff

https://larrys.substack.com/p/age-of-sureillance-capitalism-ii ^ | 4/13/2025 | LS

[LS]

Ok, sorry it has a paywall---this is only my review of it.

Everyone needs to read this powerful book. It's DENSE, and took me about 4 hours to read, but the insight into how the big social tech companies are stealing our lives is important.

Previously in my substacks I had written part 1, covering the first 1/3 of the book. This covers the last 2/3.

[sauropod]

BFLV

[ClearCase_guy]

It's DENSE, and took me about 4 hours to read

It's over 700 pages. How fast do you read?

[Albion Wilde]

Thx, LS.
bump for later

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The premise presented in the book is that we are the raw material that Big Tech uses to produce their real product, Predictive Analytics, used to predict and influence human behavior in the pursuit of profit in ways that we may not be aware of. We have come to accept this surveillance as normal and have unwittingly become part of a new form of capitalism that seeks to monetize every aspect of our lives.

[Angelino97]

According to her Wiki page, Zuboff cites her influences as "Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, Theodor Adorno, Karl Polanyi, Jean-Paul Sartre.

She has a daughter, Chloe Sophia Maxmin. Her Wiki describes her as "an American Democratic politician and environmental activist who served as the Maine State Senator for District 13."

[Fiji Hill]

Some reviewers on Amazon have panned the book for giving a disjointed and simplistic presentation of a leftwing viewpoint in a flowery romance-novel style.

[FlatulusMaximus]

I agree! It’s not a breezy read, but definitely worth the effort. As astonishing piece of research/writing.

[LS]

Yep. I think I said most of that in my review. Still a must read.

[LS]

Which is why I suggest people read it for themselves. She is absolutely right about several things.

[LS]

I used to read 500 words a minute, but have slowed. Also, I rarely read a book, even fiction, at a single sitting. I stop, digest, make notes.

But in grad school I’d bring a STACK of library books home and go through all of them in one evening.