Gilles Deleuze talks about how societies have been controlled in the past, the characteristics of the modes of control and the transformation of that control. He incorporates the teachings of Foucault and his insight that control in societies is transitory. The society of sovereignty is the first one analyzed with its characteristics of taxing the subjects, absence of democracy and lack of modes of production.
Following the society of sovereignty are the disciplinary societies in the 18th and the 19th centuries. Those societies are characterized with controlling “vast spaces of enclosure” (p.3), concentrated modes of mass production and concentration of property. This mode of mass production, which is concerned with increasing profits, invests in technologies that can replace the workers. This technology development leads to a different form of capitalism, or the society of control. The societies of control are using smaller machines, computers, the individual is identified by their password, and the control is exercised by curbing access to information. The society of control is not concerned with manufacturing and production, because it purchases ready products and sells services.
It seems there is a double standard. We are encouraged and sometimes forces to share more and more data though different tracking mechanisms – computers, cell phones, digital watches or health monitors. On the other side we have no idea how our data is managed and distributed. These modern technologies are the “electronic collars” (p.7) of today, which have the same function as the leg bracelets worn by people under house arrest.
It seems there is a double standard. We are encouraged and sometimes forces to share more and more data though different tracking mechanisms – computers, cell phones, digital watches or health monitors. On the other side we have no idea how our data is managed and distributed. These modern technologies are the “electronic collars” (p.7) of today, which have the same function as the leg bracelets worn by people under house arrest.