Control Societies and Science Fiction

I was particularly stuck by Deleuze’s brief article on the topic of control societies, and how his conception of the future of society compares with the views of science fiction authors.

After reading the article, and gaining further understanding from Professor Chun’s lecture, I’m under the impression that the effects of a control society on major groups/networks within the society all follow a similar theme. Where in disciplinary societies there was threat of punishment as the measure of control over society, control societies do not even require threat. Rather, the control is in data, in knowledge of all aspects of society. In disciplinary societies, crime is deterred by the threat of punishment; in control societies, crime is prevented by all-seeing cameras, automatic alarms, automatically locking safes and cash registers, fingerprinting databases, and networks with data on all known criminals. In disciplinary societies, work is required by locking workers in factories and office buildings, and firing those that do not comply. In control societies, work is meant to be fun, and be a part on one’s life – something that never really ends. Everything you do is work; you keep up on recent articles by those in your profession; you eat breakfast lunch and dinner with coworkers (even in the office, like at Facebook); you spend free time with coworkers discussing work; you stress about work before you go to bed. In disciplinary societies, school is required by herding kids into schools and punishing truants. In control societies, school is much like work – it encompasses the entirety of your life. And the control is maintained by the people that it is meant to control, by instantly accessible data about how not attending school, or not becoming a CEO, will reduce your potential income tenfold, so you’ll never look like the famous people you always see on TV.

All of this is kind of a rewording of Deleuze’s article and Professor Chun’s lecture. I know. The thing that I find interesting about all of this – aside from the fact that control can, and will, be entirely maintained by the people who are being controlled – is that science fiction novels that focus on societal control don’t seem to picture the future as a control society, as in Deleuze’s vision.

The Matrix emphasizes apparent freedom masking control, with appears on the surface to be a control society, but is not. The apparent freedom is just that – apparent – and even those that free themselves are still only living in apparent freedom (this is referencing the latter two Matrices, that is, until Neo frees everyone. Sorry if I ruined the ending.)

Books like We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and 1984 by George Orwell envision a world with complete control over people; though people may convince themselves that they are free or happy – and they may be happy – there is no freedom in these stories. Similarly, the laughably bad film Equilibrium envisions a world of complete control, with no real freedom. The comic-book-turned-film V for Vendetta also has this vision.

However, books that aren’t entirely concerned with the future of control often have better depictions of Deleuze’s control society. Neuromancer takes place in a world where there is a free flow of data and knowledge, where everyone if free but control is imposed. Snow Crash takes place in a similar world, as does another of Stevenson’s novels, Diamond Age. Margaret Atwood also pictures a world like this in the novel Oryx and Crake.

The really interesting thing about all of these novels is where the control society progresses from the present. All imagine a world where nations are no longer really sovereign, and where companies and corporations essentially rule their own nation-states. Work, school and punishment all converge in these nation-states; the company really is your life.