How Does Information Shape Governance—and Vice Versa?

In his book Seeing Like a State, James C. Scott argues, “Certain forms of knowledge and control require a narrowing of vision.” According to Scott, this narrowing of vision allowed the state to make the society over which it ruled more “legible.” Without some principle of abstraction that would turn individual persons into a set of manageable data points, the governing authorities found it difficult to manage the day-to-day affairs of their territory. As Scott notes, “In state ‘fiscal forestry,’ however, the actual tree with its vast number of possible uses was replaced by an abstract tree representing a volume of lumber or firewood.” The real-life “thing” is translated into information that can be tracked, measured, and monitored.

In seeking to make the world easier to understand, the state runs the risk of oversimplifying the complexities that exist in the real world. The “map” would become the “territory” replacing reality with a representation of it (see Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation). In essence, the state constructs a false understanding of the world it oversees and, as a result, becomes less capable of overseeing it.

Consider, for instance, the Facebook Files leaked in 2021. Facebook had plenty of user data, but the company took a narrow view of its users and continued to develop their platform even when it became clear that their platform was harmful to some of those using it, namely teenage girls. Users were treated simply as data points to be monetized rather than as complex individuals, some of whom might be better off not using the platform. This perspective may seem overly bleak, but the relative lack of action taken by Facebook—even up to the present day—suggests that the company either doesn’t believe the research, feels it is relatively inconsequential, or simply doesn’t care.

As Christians reflect on the implications of data centers, data mining, and digital IDs, we must keep in mind the dynamic Scott describes. As governments rely increasingly on abstracted representations of reality—statistics and data analyses—they inevitably flatten the contours of actual human experience. Part of our responsibility is to consider how our participation in data sharing contributes to this flattening. Yes, sharing our data has implications for our privacy, but it also affects how ruling authorities or corporations perceive and interact with us—whether as complex beings or merely as profiles.