Yuval Harari ends his 2017 work Homo Deus by laying out a new system of thinking that he calls the “Data Religion”. At the heart of this religion are two central tenants: 1) that a Dataist out to “maximize data flow” by connecting as many producers and consumers of information as possible and 2) that everything must be “[linked] to the system”, whether it wants to or not (Harari 387). The greatest sin a Dataist can commit is to prevent data from flowing freely. This thinking parallels inclusive, non-violent moral and ethical frameworks like Buddhism and Christianity but, rather than acting for the sake of others or for the self, everything is done so that data may enter through all things. Information, at least according to Harari, doesn’t just want to be free, it must be free.
Harari goes out of his way to illustrate how these principles of data operate in the real world. According to Harari, it was God or the sacredness of individual liberties that allowed the United States to win the Cold War but rather the fact that the system of state communism in the USSR was not optimized for data flow. Capitalism, in juxtaposition to state communism, “processes data by “directly connecting producers and consumers to one another” and allows them to communicate freely (Harari 374). Therefore, free market capitalism is the most “sacred” system of economics (from a Dataist perspective at least).
And this brings me to the actual crux of this piece: I’m not so certain the current state of capitalism is Dataist at all.
In June 2018 the Obama-era regulations protecting net neutrality were removed, meaning that the FCC no longer had the ability to block internet service providers (ISPs) like Verizon or AT&T from putting data behind addition paywalls or throttle service to data that was favorable to the ISP in some way (Collins 2). This was another step in favor a profit based approach to data. This isn’t of course to say that the pre-2015 internet was the wild west that it used to be, but the dismantling of the federal legislation protecting net neutrality was another nail in the coffin of completely free moving data on the internet. Now it would not be out of the question for ISPs to place services like Facebook and Spotify in bundles to be sold to the consumer (not unlike cable television).
The fact of the matter is that capitalism, while connecting producers and consumers of data together freely, is driven by profit. It’s unfortunate but you simply cannot blame ISPs for wanting to make additional money off a service they operate; it makes logical sense in context. But this should be considered a grievous sin by any self-respecting Dataist.
So, are there any alternatives? Is there anyone out there standing up for a Dataist worldview?
“No monopoly should be able to prevent works, tools, or ideas from: being freely used, expressed, exchanged, recombined, or taught; nor to violate individual privacy or human rights. A creator’s right to be compensated for their work or ideas is only acceptable withing these limitations.” – U.S. Pirate Party platform
Enter the Pirate Party. Like the Greens or the 4th International, the Pirate Party is an international movement that seeks to reconstruct the global economic system in favor of an open and free flow of information. They do no seek to dismantle the free market or centralize the regulation of data but neither do they seek to monetize information. Instead, their aim is to deregulate the flow of information as much as possible. This includes the abolishment of copyrights, Digital Rights Management, and patents (Party Platform 2). These changes might seem at odds with a capitalist ethic but I think synchronizes nicely with a Dataist one.
Sola Notitia
Sources Used:
- Homo Deus – Yuval Harari
- U.S. Pirate Party Platform
- “Net Neutrality Has Officially Been Repealed. Here’s How That Could Affect You” – Keith Collins
Data/Society/Decision-making Spring 2019 