Megacorporation: The Infinite Times of Alphabet

Description

When the scale and scope of influence that a corporation wields is so great that it eclipses that of nearly all other corporations combined, it attains megacorporate status. Whelan proposes that, amongst the current big tech cohort, it is only Alphabet, the parent company of Google, that can be categorized as such. In advancing a novel philosophical perspective, and aspiring to an amoral ideal of analysis, Whelan reveals Alphabet's activities to be informed by the ideology of infinite times, consequently transforming how we experience the past, present and the future at personal and social levels. By shining a light on such corporate existential impacts, Megacorporation: The Infinite Times of Alphabet opens up a new field of research that makes the philosophical analysis of business and society an everyday concern. This novel study on corporate social influence will appeal to readers interested in big tech, business and society, political economy and organization studies. Cover Half-title Series information Title page Copyright information Contents List of Figures List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements 1 Introduction Beyond Big and Bad: An Amoral Analysis A Philosophical Turn Ethical Theory Political Theory Socio-economic Theory Philosophy Corporate-Shaped Societies A Simple Method of Construction A Three-Part Structure Summary Part I The Birth of a Megacorporation 2 Megacorporations From Fiction to Fact Three Types of Corporation Normal Corporations Multinational Corporations Total Corporations The Characteristics of a Megacorporation Monopoly Corporate Social Responsibility Concerns Political-Economic Hybrid Existential Impacts The English East India Company Monopoly Corporate Social Responsibility Concerns Political-Economic Hybrid Existential Impacts Summary 3 Alphabet Silicon Valley Stanford University Entrepreneurs United States Military Google Algorithms Advertising Copyright Post-Google, Pre-Alphabet Alphabet: A Megacorporation Monopoly Corporate Social Responsibility Concerns Political-Economic Hybrid Summary Part II Shaping Our Pasts and Futures 4 Personal Pasts RIP Privacy (1760-2013) Your Digital Dossier Your Own Contribution The Contribution of Others The Contribution of Corporations Careful Concept of Self - Integrated Social Norms - Predictable Target Risk - High Post-Disclosure Management - Difficult Carefree Concept of Self - Disintegrated Social Norms - Capricious Target Risk - Low Post-Disclosure Management - Possible Summary 5 Social Pasts An Embarrassment of Riches Massive History Data - All of It Worldview - Objective Tools and Techniques - Count and Learn Goals - Description and Explanation Mélange History Data - Appropriate World View - Contextual Tools and Techniques - Remix Goals - Development Summary 6 Personal Futures Who Wants to Live 'Forever'? Ready to Die Ascensionists Egalitarians Bioconservatives Ennuists Sequential You Substrate - Dependent Personal Projection - Orderly Simultaneous Yous Substrate - Independent Personal Projection - Portfolio Summary 7 Social Futures A Sustainable Power of Ambiguous Worth Authoritarian Individual Communal Environmental Autonomous Individual Communal Environmental Summary Part III Megadeath 8 A Finite Ideology Distinguishing Ideologies Infinite Times Future Primitive The Alphabet-Created Threat The Other-Created Threat Extinction The Alphabet-Created Threat The Other-Created Threat The Singularity The Alphabet-Created Threat The Other-Created Threat Summary 9 Immediate Threats Concerns on Campus Concerns All Around Final Summary References Index