The coloniality of desire

Revealing the desire to be seen and blind spots leveraged by data colonialism as AI manipulates the unconscious for profitable extraction on dating apps

Abstract

In this paper, I argue “ghastly capitalism” provides a better hook for critiquing the economy than “surveillance capitalism” as described by Zuboff (2019). When becoming invisible is experienced as an excruciating form of social death known as a “shadow ban,” surveillance seems more like an endorsement of big tech’s scopophilia than a critique. In addition, the blind spots and amnesia that emerge from shoddy practices of datafaction may be more central to asymmetries of power than an all-encompassing and ubiquitous gaze of surveillance. These blind spots are made bigger by the inscrutability of AI, allowing users, designers, and regulators to turn a blind eye to the historical Whiteness and heteropatriarchy they amplify. I make this argument by scrutinizing AI-driven capitalism in the context of dating apps, where absentminded and superficial thumb swipes inform algorithmic determinations of “thoughtfulness” and “attractiveness,” baking coloniality into the algorithms that influencing how people form intimate relationships today. A note on methods is warranted before elaborating these points.