When Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004, he was likely not aware he
was creating the most powerful database in the world, collecting the private data
of billions of people. Now, immense power is concentrated in the hands of a single
individual and his company. The same thing happened with Amazon, which was
originally founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 to sell books online. Since then, the
company has grown to become a worldwide sales and distribution platform for all
kinds of goods, also with a vast amount of personal data from billions of individuals. These companies have created the nucleus of a new form of social and economic model. The writer Dave Eggars, author of the bestseller The Circle,
73
calls
it surveillance capitalism.
74
Even the rising Space Economy 2.0 is already showing signs of this new form of capitalism. Within a few decades, new types of pervasive monopolies could materialize on our planet.
73
Eggers, Dave. 2013. “The Circle”, Knopf edition. This contemporary novel, worthy heir to
George Orwell’s book “1984”, is halfway between the dystopian and science fiction genres,
and offers a disturbing but realistic point of view on the relationship that humans and companies are developing with digital technology and social networks.
74
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/19/dave-eggers-us-writers-take-stand-nsasurveillance.
100 Space Economy: A Business On the Launch Pad
was creating the most powerful database in the world, collecting the private data
of billions of people. Now, immense power is concentrated in the hands of a single
individual and his company. The same thing happened with Amazon, which was
originally founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 to sell books online. Since then, the
company has grown to become a worldwide sales and distribution platform for all
kinds of goods, also with a vast amount of personal data from billions of individuals. These companies have created the nucleus of a new form of social and economic model. The writer Dave Eggars, author of the bestseller The Circle,
73
calls
it surveillance capitalism.
74
Even the rising Space Economy 2.0 is already showing signs of this new form of capitalism. Within a few decades, new types of pervasive monopolies could materialize on our planet.
73
Eggers, Dave. 2013. “The Circle”, Knopf edition. This contemporary novel, worthy heir to
George Orwell’s book “1984”, is halfway between the dystopian and science fiction genres,
and offers a disturbing but realistic point of view on the relationship that humans and companies are developing with digital technology and social networks.
74
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/19/dave-eggers-us-writers-take-stand-nsasurveillance.
100 Space Economy: A Business On the Launch Pad