One misty morning in March, a Belarusian-American man in his late thirties, with a well trimmed beard and rectangle glasses walked into the cafe, just to see his guest waiting patiently at the café table. She is a calm woman in her seventies, with dark eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses and abundant black curls. She slowly sipping her latte, waiting for her guest to sit down.

Figure : Evgeny Morozov (left) and Shoshana Zuboff (right). [ Source ]

The two guests at the café today are nobody but two intellectuals - the man being Evgeny Morozov, the author of To Save Everything, Click Here, who coined the word "Technological Solutionism" - and the woman being Shoshana Zuboff, who formulated the concept of "Surveillance Capitalism". Both are here at the café today for a deep talk about the respective concepts they have come up with.

Morozov : Good morning, Dr. Zuboff. It's an honor to meet and chat with you today.

Zuboff : Same to you, Mr. Morozov. I have read your book, To Save Everything, Click Here a while ago, and a big fan of it.

Morozov : Thank you very much...I also got your recent book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, and looking forward to reading it. Maybe, you can start by explaining the concept of Surveillance Capitalism, and why it is relevant and important?

Zuboff : Absolutely. As I define formally in my paper, is the "new form of information capitalism aims to predict and modify human behavior as a means to produce revenue and market control." However, if you want a non-fancy definition, it just means that the Big Tech corporations have been finding stealthy ways to collect our data and turn it into a market commodity. This is very relevant because in this day and age, this style of data collection has been normalized, and nobody dares to question the ethics behind it. For example, to build the Google Maps Street View, Google did not ask the homes if photographing is allowed. It simply takes what it wants. As a result, after acquiring huge amounts of data, Google knows far more about people than people know about themselves. And what to do with the data and what will happen, we simply don't know.

Morozov : Very interesting points, Dr. Zuboff. I also thinks that, as you said, Surveillance Capitalism is a threat to our privacy. It is thrilling to realize that these big companies have all these data, and use this data to influence our lives, just because they know more about us than we know ourselves.

Figure : Surveillance Capitalism is everywhere now. [ Source ]

Zuboff : Yes, indeed. What a world we live in. Mr.Morozov, why don't we also explore your Technological Solutionism, and its implications to society?

Morozov : Thank you for bringing it up. My idea is more or less the same as you. What I argue is that these days, we have an app for everything and we do not really need that. I mean, we see that these days, this so-called data-collection is normalized, and algorithms and apps are everywhere. They claim to make our lives better. However, I say that we have to use these technologies just because we do not have enough resources, or find any better ways to tackle with the bigger problems, which are the real causes and roots.

Figure : We don't need an app for that. [ Source ]

Zuboff : Interesting. Please elaborate.

Morozov :As an example, nowadays, we are very obssessed with tracking self health data, and the world seems to promote it. However, unlike the narrative told by the technologists to achieve the data fantasy utopia, this is actually because we do not have enough resources and money to put back into our healthcare systems, so that we have to rely on these predictive algorithms to prevent our health issues. Back in my 2015 presentation, All Watched Over by Algorithms, I stated that the reason why we see more and more algorithm sensors or databases all around us has to do with the structural conditions and crises within financialized capitalism and not so much with the development of the technologies themselves.

Zuboff : Well said, Mr. Morozov. I do agree with your proposition that the real problem is at a deeper level, and the technologies are just a way to a way to keep the system running, otherwise the system will collapse.

Morozov : Indeed, that was my main argument... Well, it seems time flies so quickly, and our conversation has to come to an end. Thank you very much for this.

Zuboff :You are welcome. See you around.

Shortly, both Morozov and Zuboff left and walked their own ways.

Personally, I have to be fine with both Surveillance Capitalism and Technological Solutionism because it is my career. On a personal, ethical level, I do think that these are wrong, because the process of mass data collection has already been normalized and people do not want to, are forced to give away their data. Otherwise they will be left out of the system. Moreover, the people do not really have control over the data collected about them. However, as Morozov states, the rise of these algorithm sensors or databases all around us has to do with the structural conditions and not with the technological progress, and it will be really hard to change these structural conditions from an individual level. Therefore, in this day and age, I have no other choice but to follow the advice "If you can't fight them, join them."