Afterword
The afterword provides a detailed description of developments in the area of privacy and surveillance after the turn of the century and of the rapid developments in information technology and the monopoly firms like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, which have come to dominate the flow of information and the appropriation of consumer surplus. Its focus on technological systems includes the expanded internet, with special emphasis on the Internet of Things and the impact of the connections between humans, sensors, and machines. Special attention is paid to transformations in the nature of capitalism, reflected in assessments made by Shoshana Zuboff with regard to its focus on surveillance, and David Lyon and Bernard Harcourt with regard to the role of social media and the exhibitionist culture that it helped to develop. The risks to democratic systems associated with developments in computation and analysis, accelerated through advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, are described in the context of transformations in governance likely to accompany the emergence of an algorithmic Leviathan. At this point, an assessment of Jacques Ellul’s predictions about the future of our democratic systems is provided once again.