Customer Reviews

Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Imagine a future in which the governmental and corporate sectors have total control over people; where they share full disclosure of all information about you - from what you had for breakfast seven years ago to the type of fantasies you play out in your head when no one is looking - and that they use this information to make sure you stay in line and, of course, to sell you things. Imagine a future where every motion, thought, and act is recorded, analyzed and incorporated into a system of Absolute Control. As Jensen and Draffan show in this book, such a future is rapidly approaching. In fact, it is almost here.

A few up-coming technologies discussed in this book include: Radio frequency tags (RFID) that have the power to number, identify, catalog and track every item in the world; mind-reading machines; thought implantation, using a beam of sound transmitted from hundreds of yards away so focused that only one person can hear it; ubersoldiers that can leap buildings, deflect bullets with hard exoskeletons and even become invisible; remote-controlled animals; vehicle tracking systems; nanotechnologies that can target and destroy a specific group of people; pills for everything - including the suppression of pesky emotions, like fear and remorse; the e-man and uploading the human brain; smart dust; Domestic Control Hover Drones: silent, remote controlled drones capable of chasing people at fifty miles per hour, equipped with video cameras, thermal imaging sensors, microphones which can pick up a conversation at more than a quarter mile, voice transmitters ("Stop, this is the police!") and a stun-gun.

Frightened yet? No worries. "So long as you do what they tell us, we have nothing to hide, and nothing to fear." Right? Along with the authors, I am not so sure about that. The oppressive technologies Jensen and Draffan discuss in this book are downright terrifying. Yet it is really terrifying to know that our government is developing much scarier things behind closed doors. Those technologies we know about are the ones that are supposed to wow us over. However, for me personally, there is nothing awe-inspiring about the prospect of having my thoughts read, hearing Big Brother's voice in my ear, being chased by hover drones, or digitally chipped with an RFID tag. There is nothing inspiring about living inside Bentham's Panopticon. No, so long as we do what they tell us, we have everything to fear.

Yet long before we allow ourselves to be ruled by outward machines, we must submit to the fundamentalist machine religions of Christianity, Science, Capitalism, Bureaucracy and Progress. These institutions obliterate diversity by coercing us into distrusting our own direct experience and defer to experts. The mantras of futility should sound familiar: outside science there is no knowledge; outside technology there is no comfort; outside capitalism there are no economic transactions; outside industrial civilization there is no humanity, and outside the Panopticon there is no security. Outside the system, nothing is imaginable.

Running concomitant with the progress of science and technology is the disempowerment of people, our increasing separation from nature and the exponential growth of social chaos. As history advances, we are increasingly individualized, stripped naked under the gaze of a cold, abstract power. As bureaucracy and its rules of efficiency, quantification and redundancy expand, we experience the death of creativity, spontaneity and hope. Progress becomes a sort of downward spiral, in which every emotion "except pain, rage, triumph, and self-abasement" are eradicated, to borrow from Orwell. "Everything else we will destroy - everything."

Aside from the great pyramids of technology and power, there really isn't much left to destroy in the natural world. We have already laid waste to the earth: We have initiated the greatest extinction in 65 million years, the primeval forests have been largely leveled, the climate has been irrevocably altered, and all of the air, food and water we need to live as organic beings has been laced with deadly pollutants. Really, what's left? What is worth saving in this system of destruction?

What the panoptic guards do not want you to know is that there is another way to live. Indeed, there are many other ways. Thousands of tribal cultures succeeded (and the ones that are left are still succeeding, insofar we let them) in living harmoniously in the natural world. As the authors note, these cultures were based on gift giving and the maintenance of close, face-to-face relationships that encourage egalitarianism. Our culture, on the other hand, the culture of the machine, is based upon economic relationships characterized by buying and selling. Lawyers and shopkeepers are the primary mediators.

How do we leave the panopticon? What's the exit strategy? "All it will take for this whole rotten system to collapse is for enough of us to learn to say NO. And to say NO again. And again. And again." Say no to your destructive job, and do something positive. Say no to the global economy, and start living locally. Say no to politics, and stage a revolution. Say no to your car, and walk for a change. Say no to oppression, and exit the machine.

JWK

Even as a converted Jensen-ite, there were times during this book when it came across as the "horrible conspiracy theory crazy talk" that the one-star reviewer below described. However, I came to see those moments as rhetorical exaggerations in the service of a deeper underlying truth.

If we agree that Starbucks is not going to be beaming advertising directly into your cerebral cortex any time soon, it behooves us to ask why we're so sure. Because that corporation would certainly have the modesty and decency not to saturate our environment with their product and advertising? Uh... hmm... Because of the fundamental respect they have for our individuality? Well, probably not. (And why should they? If you're getting your coffee at Starbucks, how individual do you think you are?) Because scientists would never lend themselves to such a dehumanizing project? Their record strongly suggests otherwise. Because no one would ever sign up for it? Do you know how many hours of television the *average* American watches in a day to numb them to the alienated misery of their life? [And who says you'll have a choice? How much choice did you have about getting your kid injected with a disease... excuse me, I meant "immunized"? Or having them assigned a tracking number... excuse me, I meant "Social Security number"?] Because it's just too science fictional? Not a safe bet. Could you have imagined 20 years ago how the Internet would change your life? Not just the convenience of book buying on Amazon, of course, but the end of written correspondence and the skyrocketing of identity theft?

If you're honest, I think you'll have to concede Jensen's real point here. Which is that if Starbucks is not *already* beaming advertising directly into your cerebral cortex, it is only because the Machine has not yet provided them with the means for doing so. And that the Machine will *inevitably* seek out this power (or some more cost-efficient alternative) to make you a better-fitting cog for its operation - in the pious name of "boosting the economy" or "homeland security", of course.

So long story short: the Machine is already at least 90% finished "processing" the indigenous peoples of the world, the large fish population, and first-growth forests into corpses (fishsticks and junk-mail brochures are corpses too) - which is its ultimate Product. In the course of that achievement, it has created measurable level of dioxins in the breast milk of every woman on the planet, flushed away millions of tons of topsoil, and set us speeding down the path to irreversible global warming. Our middle-class American hope is that It will be kind enough to stop there - while we can "enjoy" our frozen dinners, SUVs, and "reality shows" - without killing all of us as well.

But a Machine doesn't have feelings. And it has gotten terribly efficient at what it does.

This book did not turn out to be what I expected, given the publisher's description, but that's okay. This is not an investigative report or in-depth description of new surveillance and tracking technologies. Instead, these new technologies are used as examples in a modern philosophical screed by Jensen (with an unclear amount of input from George Draffan) on the human condition vis-à-vis the modern surveillance state, in a hard-hitting tome that is usually downright fun to read, and often terrifying. So instead of being blandly scientific, what we have here is an exploratory essay that is hugely insightful on the current state of humanity, and is also engagingly polemical, sarcastic, inflammatory, and even condescending in places. The book must be docked one star because the sarcasm and guilt-tripping sometimes sap the power from Jensen's arguments, while his basic points become very repetitive as the book lurches along. The recommendations for improving the current state of humanity are also pretty thin, not reaching too far beyond basic resistance, class struggle, and community. But in the end we do have a truly terrifying vision of how modern technologies in surveillance, information gathering, biotech, and computing are putting the common man under more control than ever. Under the guise of convenience, efficiency, and (especially in the most recent times) security and protection, governments and corporations have more control over the lives of common people than ever before, and it's only going to get worse. Despite the minor weaknesses in this book's particular writing style, you'll find that Derrick Jensen is a brilliant modern humanist philosopher, and if that's what you expect from this book then you'll be pleased - and greatly disturbed. [~doomsdayer520~]

Having read some of Jensen's material before, I had an idea of what to expect. With this book, the authors compare all of the attitudes and institutions of society to a machine, designed to convert "human beings to workers", to turn individuals into "cogs". Basically, the machine exists to control and direct the actions of the masses, for the purpose of achieving the goals of the few.
While I like the writing style, the second half of this book can be quite tedious. During the first half, the basis for the machine is established, and the arguments made by the authors can be humorous and compelling. As the book progresses though, I got the feeling that every point had already been made, and the rest of the book mainly consists of those points being reinforced by listing endless examples. In the chapter "Money", the author spends several pages simply listing ways in which the government spends money. While this does help to hammer the point home, it makes a tiresome read. Still, the first half of the book alone makes it worth the read, and the second half comes in handy if you get into an argument with someone and want to bombard them with facts and numbers. If you like Jensen, this book shouldn't disappoint.

I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM to finish the last chapter of Welcome to the Machine. By 7:30 AM I was ready to dismantle whatever needs to be dismantled of the machine. Or put another way, I was ready to smash the machine.

In Welcome to the Machine Jensen and Draffan ask the readers some of the most important questions civilized human beings can ask themselves. "Do science, technology, and the military better serve living breathing human beings, or corporations? Do you believe societies power structures have been designed for your best interests? The interests of your family? Your community? Your landbase? What do these structures protect? How do you want to live?"

Jensen and Draffan have made it clear to me who benefits from nanotechnology, biometrics, hidden cameras in dressing rooms, email interception, phone taps, your neighbors telling on you(TIPS), RFID chips, well designed prisons, stored information about you on computer hard drives and a "day after" pill that erases any remorse felt by soldiers who commit the most despicable of atrocities. The name of the game is "top down" management, and those at the bottom definitely benefit far less from science, technology, and surveillance than those at the top.


Participate in the machine; you pay for the research of surveillance technology.
Participate in the machine; you pay for the surveillance technology.
Participate in the machine; you pay for yourself to be watched.


If your part of the machine, read this book!

As scary as this book is, I thank Derrick Jensen and George Draffin for writing the truth. Modern survalence is a threat to our freedom. Anybody who wants to know what those in power are doing to monitor us, or what they plan to do read this book. Not only is it full of facts, but Derrick helps you come to terms with what all of it means. People now-a-days dont have a huge problem with giving up some of their freedom for security. But what those in power are doing with this information is down right scary, and un-acceptable. It is a quick read too. It will bring up huge topics, define and break them apart, and open your eyes to modern technology; all in a days/weekends read. Overall great read. A+++

I'm not sure if I have ever read a book quite like this one, the author writing style is a little different to say the least. At first I was concerned that maybe a mad professor had escaped from an asylum, such is the writing style but soon realised that the author is a man who has a great deal of knowledge but an even greater passion for the subject.

I can remember someone saying that privacy is like a straight line with total anonymity on one end and essentially total government control on the other and that as we as a society move further away from privacy we will never be able to go back. Considering the world as we now know it and how the world's governments are reacting to it, this book serves as a reminder or more correctly a primer to likely future we shall face in the very near future.

If your only going to by one book of this type then I think that this should be it, I purchased quite a few of the same type of books when I purchased this one and so far this is the one that stands out from the crowd.

Our modern-day Thoreau once again delivers us cautionary advice and uncommon wisdom by looking at our cultural machinations and manifestations of paranoia, greed, power, and control run amok in our global society. Welcome to the Machine challenges our submission to the institutions and technologies built to rob us of all that makes us human--our connection to the land, our kinship with one another, our place in the living world.

"the eye you see isn't an eye because you see it; it's an eye because it sees you." Welcome to the Machine is truly a terrifying book. In the age of technology, it is inevitable that surveillance and control will be abused by the highest of power.
As Americans, we see our privacy rights being extracted from us by the minute. This book is intended to inform us of the secret (and not so secret) technologies that are being used by corporations, politicians, and of course the Department of Defense. Everything from an urban surveillance system that will be able to track, record, and analyze our every move, to "deadly bio-machines of finite life that could be released by sub-munitions, showering opponents in millions of nanobots...that could literally eat humans alive." It may sound as though the authors are a bit paranoid, but these are statements coming from the manufacturers themselves. Jensen points out that the goons developing these destructive technologies have the same response to criticism as the creators of mobile killing vans used by the Nazis. They say, "We are research and development people. We think about what's possible, not what the government will do with it. That's somebody else's job." This is yet another great book by two outstanding writers.

How is science contributing to surveillance methods and increasing methods of observation and control in society? Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, And The Culture Of Control could have been considered under 'social issues' but its focus on the uses of science in controlling societies is too important to place elsewhere. From ID chips in cars and consumer products which help gather information on people's preferences to exoskeleton armor which makes soldiers invin-cible, Welcome To The Machine provides an intriguing, frightening perspective on a society increasingly controlled by the technology it uses.