Data Wars, The Algorithmic State

'Data Wars, The Algorithmic State' is a breakthrough book.¬ A new form of state is suggested. 'Data Wars, The Algorithmic State' starts with a discussion of Amazon and Big Tech. The argument proceeds to look at the use and control of data and images in this context. The scholarship on what is known as techno-feudalism in places like California and elsewhere is discussed as are other references to 'the digital age'. There is a discussion of Machine Learning and the use of algorithms in an effort to provide historical background and some theoretical perspectives in explaining this new form of state. The use of Machine Learning is seen as pivotal in the shift from data as a saved and, as it were, a passive entity to an extensive projection of data pictures that guide behaviour. The image of the person as well as the nature of the state in which the person lives is considered as are the situation of minority ethnic groups. Chapters Eight and Nine look at such matters as the dispute over Covid data between Maori groups and the New Zealand government and a recent High Court ruling in favour of Maori. In this new state the concept of the citizen is changed. The range of choice, the options in the neighbourhood with Amazon Sidewalk, say, and the household with Alexa and the like as well as in the wider frames of the state are known in different ways.