IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015 - 5

quo "appears to provide no buffer
against insidious shifts in practice
that ultimately gain acceptance
as 'normal'" [1, p. 160]. In other
words, what was once unthinkable is the new normal. Eggers
masterfully illustrates this effect in
The Circle. His story describes the
insidious way the goal of total visibility of the population is achieved
through technological means that
are incrementally adopted by a
technology-loving society.
Eggers' second technique for
drawing his reader into believing
the feasibility of the story's plot is
in the way new technology ideas
are presented. New ideas are always
presented from the voice of an altruistic champion of technology with
cult-like enthusiasm. New technology is presented as beneficial, while
summarily dismissing any negative
consequences. For example, Eggers' fictitious company developed
an implantable tracking chip for children called ChildTrack, not entirely
unlike the RFID tracking chips we
place under the skin of our pets
today to help locate them when they
go astray. The ChildTrack technology is intended to prevent children
from being abducted, and Eggers'
character advocates for the invention by implying that if the device is
not adopted, then horrible acts of
violence against children will happen. This kind of reasoning appeals
to our visceral fears, and it is
extraordinarily powerful in convincing one to adopt a perceived solution. But this is a false logic. This
example never seeks to account for
the enormous negative psychological consequences of a child being
continuously tracked and monitored. Eggers skillfully demonstrates
that presenting a new technology as
altruistic - with no acknowledgment
of potential societal harm - is an
effective tool to advance a technological goal.
MARCH 2015

This leads to Eggers' key theme
This is a classic example of
in The Circle. He presents quantifiwhat has been described as the
cation technologies as an enabling
unraveling effect by law professor
mechanism for the greater good
and privacy expert Scott Peppet. As
of humanity, but he also shows
he eloquently describes, there is a
that these technologies are blind
"possible unraveling of privacy altoto what actually makes us human.
gether because some individuals
Basic human rights of personal
initially will find it in their interest
autonomy, privacy, freedom to
to disclose information for personexperiment, and independent selfal gain and then, as the unraveling
reflection are not decision factors
proceeds, everyone will realize that
that weigh in the calculus of techdisclosure is no longer a choice
nology in The Circle. In truth, the
because the signaling economy
Circle's quantification technoloattaches stigma to staying silent"
gies are dehumanizing, and there
[2, p. 1176] Eggers shows this parois no effective social or legal govchial logic in the clarified politiernance in the story to moderate
cians. The politicians embrace the
the effects.
simplistic thinking that transparenThroughout the plot, Eggers
cy enabled by quantified existence
threads together examples that add
benefits democracy. But the sinister
a disturbing dimension to
the possible consequences of quantification. For
example, he constructs
a scenario where elected
leaders are encouraged to
Eggers constructs a neargo clear, which is a euphefuture corporation whose goal
mism for their agreeing to
be continuously monitored
is to achieve total societal
and having their actions
broadcasted. The seemsurveillance through observing,
ingly noble pretext of this
digitizing, and archiving the
idea is that the actions of
political leaders should be
everyday actions of individuals.
fully visible to the public
in order for democracy to
function optimally. Eggers writes in the voice of a
politician who has been clarified,
unseen logic is that there is no real
"I intend to show how democracy
choice in this situation. And lack
can and should be: entirely open,
of real choice is the antithesis of a
entirely transparent." Eggers clevdemocratic society.
erly presents the decision to go
Eggers shows that skillfully-craftclear as a voluntary measure left to
ed rhetoric, married to the natural
the conscience of the elected leadseduction of technology, is the grease
er. The reality is that decision is
that lubricates the motion of social
anything but voluntary. It is in fact
change. The Circle may not be so
highly coerced. Eggers writes, "The
far-fetched considering that today
question, from pundits and conGoogle digitizes the world's books,
stituents, was obvious and loud:
If you aren't transparent, what are
you hiding?"
(continued on page 16)
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