Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T14:27:02.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - A Finite Ideology

from Part III - Megadeath

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2021

Glen Whelan
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Get access

Summary

This chapter begins by defining ideology in a descriptive and amoral fashion. In doing so, it shows that Greimas’s semiotic square provides a useful means by which to conceive, and delineate, the ideology of infinite times from three alternatives that I respectively term the future primitive ideology, the ideology of extinction and the singularity ideology. In line with this framing, the chapter then completes two main tasks. First, it provides a recapitulation of the infinite times ideology; of the role it plays in bringing Alphabet’s diverse activities together; and of the role it plays in aligning the megacorporation’s interests with those of its users worldwide. Second, it explains how Alphabet is directly and indirectly encouraging developments that are consistent with the future primitive, extinction and singularity ideologies that are all, whatever else their differences, similarly opposed to the ideology of infinite times. Given these discussions, the chapter concludes by emphasizing that, as the ideology of infinite times is as finite as any other ideology, it provides one potential source of Alphabet’s ultimate demise.

Type
Chapter
Information
Megacorporation
The Infinite Times of Alphabet
, pp. 159 - 183
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • A Finite Ideology
  • Glen Whelan, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book: Megacorporation
  • Online publication: 06 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108626095.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • A Finite Ideology
  • Glen Whelan, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book: Megacorporation
  • Online publication: 06 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108626095.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A Finite Ideology
  • Glen Whelan, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book: Megacorporation
  • Online publication: 06 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108626095.012
Available formats
×