Alexa is a Fed
Do Not Put This Surveillance Tech in Your Home
One of my favorite movies is the German film, The Lives of Others. It tells the story of an East German Stasi agent who is tasked with spying on a group of dissident playwrights. The apartment of the leader of the theatre troupe was bugged, and every night the Stasi agent settled in to listen to meetings the group thought they were having in secret. It was uncomfortable and anxiety-inducing to watch the watcher watching, to see privacy being invaded so thoroughly. Particularly because the transgressions were being recorded with the purpose of meting out harsh punishment. The anticipation of waiting for the door to be broken down was unbearable.
Surveillance (perceived or real) is a powerful tool of imprisonment.
Jeremy Bentham understood that well. In the late 18th century, the philosopher posited the Panopticon — a system of institutional design that placed a single watchtower in the center of a circular structure. From the watchtower, every inmate could be observed. The inmates, however, couldn’t see into the tower and couldn’t tell when they were being observed. The Panopticon was intended to exert as much control over the inmates as possible with minimal expenditure and effort.
Panopticism as a philosophy has evolved with changing political landscapes and…
