Title Megacorporation : the infinite times of Alphabet / Glen Whelan

Published Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2021 ©2021

Click on the following:
Cambridge Core

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xi, 230 pages) : illustrations Series Business, value creation, and society Business, value creation, and society. Contents 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 Summary "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. This book proposes that, from amongst the current big tech cohort, it is only Google's owner, Alphabet, that can be categorized as such. In advancing a philosophical perspective, and in striving to comply with an amoral ideal of analysis, Alphabet's activities are shown to be informed by the ideology of infinite times, and to thus be transforming how we experience the past and the future at the 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"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 21, 2021) Subject Alphabet Inc. Internet industry -- United States Conglomerate corporations -- United States Big business -- Social aspects -- United States Social responsibility of business -- United States Big business -- Social aspects Conglomerate corporations Internet industry Social responsibility of business United States Form Electronic book LC no. 2020041331 ISBN 9781108626095 1108626092 9781108688857 1108688853

  Permalink