IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019 - 7

dealing with the existential threat
of the climate emergency [8], [9]
■ secondly, ensuring distributive
justice and reducing inequality
in an economy of scarcity; and
■ thirdly, choosing a political re gime that avoids tyranny and
promotes civic participation,
protects civic dignity and provides civic education [10].

is this: The private ownership and
and a "demos" (i.e., the ordinary
control over the means of social
citizens). In this relationship, both
coordination, knowledge manageparties require the capability to
ment, peer production, and digital
appreciate and participate in the
innovation, with little public overart of rhetoric: not just as the rhetor
sight, accountability, and transpar(the orator oneself, usually one
ency, is leading to a global monopoly
of the elite) but also as an audience
of just a few platforms dominating
member, the target of rhetoric, i.e.,
each sector of commerce and social
the ordinary citizens [17].
life. This monopoly has produced
The origins of the scientific study
an asymmetric distribution of benof rhetoric (as part of a larger sciefits and the rise of "surveillance
ence of politics) can be attributed to
capitalism" [13]; the algorithmic reAristotle [16]. Rhetoric was defined
inforcement of confirmation bias
as the counterpoint to dialectic,
and the polarization of public opinwhereby dialectic was well-suited
ion based on false information and
as a means of philosophical debate
preferences rather than evidence
and analysis, and rhetoric was
well-suited as a means of practical
and reason; a reduction in oppordebate. Moreover, it functioned
tunities for successful collective
as an important communication
action at scale; o p p o r t u n i ties
for unscrupulous manipulation in
channel between the elite and the
pursuit of a hidden agenda (fo r example, fertility
tracker apps being ba nkr ol le d by a nt i - a bor tion
or ga ni z at ions, who a lso
Logos is being enfeebled by
provide links to counsellors
who offer misleading o r
undermining critical thinking, and
fa l s e i n for ma t ion [14]);
the enforcement of rote learning
and the concentration of
political influence in intermeand excessive testing.
diaries often located beyond
national governance, and
t he g r ow t h o f u ne a r ne d
income by those same intermedi"demos" in classical Athens [17]. In
aries (who effectively are neo-coloAristotle's exposition, there are three
nialists: they are often in the place
elements of the rhetorical situation:
but not of it, extracting wealth and
speech, speaker, and audience;
value from local communities and
and three elements of an effective speech (reasoned argument,
national economies [15]).
appeals to character, and appeals
However, if BD/ML design choicto emotion). These elements are
es are not just side-effecting an
identified as logos, located in the
entire community's capability of
speech itself, and concerned with
resolving public action problems,
reason; ethos, the character/repubut it c a n also affect social relatation of the speaker, the value (or
tionships within that community.
disvalue) attributed to the speaker
One of these relationships is that
outside the speech; and pathos,
between an "elite" (those who have
located in the audience, being the
been empowered in some way, for
emotive response to the speaker
example as elected representaand the speech. Therefore rhetoric
tives, or experts, or controllers of
presents three means of persuasion
some social or commercial service)

This is the duality presented by
BD/ML design choices. On the one
hand, a responsible and ethical
service provider can undoubtedly
deliver a beneficial and superior
quality of service to an end user;
and indeed significant opportunities
for self-governance and civic problem-solving. But on the other hand,
if Nietzsche is right and the will to
power is the main driving force in
humans [11], it offers a previously
unsurpassed financial, commercial
and even political imperative to
aggregate and arrogate power,
because of the economic benefits
that can be derived from the ownership of trans-national platforms that
use processed and aggregated data.
It gives asymmetric control, wealth,
and influence to the platform owner
over the data generators, providing
opportunities for: surveillance that
the secret police of former dictatorships could only dream about;3
wealth extraction beyond the most
avid dreams of the former colonialist; and the concentration of capital
(financial, social, and political) in
hands of very few, possibly beyond
the reach of the rule of law.
In fact, the essential problem that
regulators, citizens, and local communities urgently need to address
3
Surveillance or other covert operations by a
police agency against political opponents, dissidents, or organized dissent is not restricted
to dictatorships and is also a function of quasidemocracies, for example, blacklisting construction workers, or infiltrating undercover
police officers into legitimate protest groups
(and then having children with the protesters).

SEPTEMBER 2019

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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

7
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019

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