Google + Facebook + Twitter = “The Circle”:
The Life of a Corporate “Thought Guinea Pig” (“Mind Slave?”)
“What matters, counts, and what is counted, matters.”
–old saying
“Whatever is counted . . . can be bought and sold.”
–21st century update
Las Vegas just has designs on its customers’ wallets.
Google wants people’s souls, starting with its employees’.
Errr . . . make that, “The Circle,” a fictional(?), “Google + Facebook + Twitter” mash-up at the heart of Dave Eggers’ creepy new book about the innards of a certain, cutting edge Silicon Valley goliath.
The book’s underlying, twin messages: 1) lack of boundaries and transparency ain’t all they’re cracked up to be; and 2) corporate freebies are . . . anything but.
No Escape
Of course, the job perks at The Circle are undeniably and purposefully world-class: company cafeteria(s), sports facilities, company doctors and mandatory health care (and coverage for extended family!), cultural events, temporary (or not-so-temporary) living quarters, day care (not that anyone is married or has kids), grocery store, etc. — all free, and conveniently located on The Circle’s idyllic and sprawling company campus, a sort of high-tech, corporate Walden Two (B.F. Skinner’s vision of utopia).
Unfortunately for The Circle’s employees (Cult members? White Collar Serfs? Mind Slaves? Thought Guinea Pigs?”), the price exacted for all those company-provided freebies is nothing less than exclusive claim on their lives.
Not just their time, mind you — they’re actual thoughts.
And not just their conscious thoughts, but their unconscious ones, too: one of the myriad R&D projects in progress at the company is studying ways to access, monitor, and — one presumes — ultimately “monetize” people’s dreams.
Just like everything else.
9-to-5 Never Sounded So Good
Whereas Las Vegas merely needs to keep the food and booze flowing to keep its customers at the tables, The Circle takes care of every possible “distraction” in its employees’ lives — you know, like helping with an aging, infirm parent — so that they may focus, laser-like on . . . . what exactly?
Their work, each other, and themselves,
Not necessarily in that order.
Where does all this lead, you ask?
Stay tuned, I’m only about halfway through . . .
See also: “21st Century Feudalism: a Glimpse.“
