Some say knowledge is power, which sometimes is the case, yet this case’s power comes from an existing and abused lack of knowledge. Power can come from such a lack of knowledge when there are those higher entities, such as Google, Facebook, or the N.I.C.E. that truly benefit off of the less the government and the general public know, because all of their actions might not seem so nice should their true intentions be revealed.
The public is such an important factor in every world, fictional or our own, in its ability to be manipulated by some exterior factor. The media, corporations, friends, and more can all fit into such a category, but here, knowledge, or the lack thereof, is key. When Mark first encounters John Wither, Deputy Director of the N.I.C.E., he pressures him to reveal at least some sort of information about his role in the greater corporation. After revealing absolutely nothing about the further processes of the organization, Wither then “supposed that he […] would find it convenient to join the N.I.C.E. club […] at the cost of $200” (53). Mark happens to agree to this, similar to how users of Google, Facebook, and other platforms alike actively, and for some addictively, engage in processes they know so little about.
These real-life organizations have their ups and downs as well, as Zuboff expertly analyzes. She depicts how at times of “absence of standard checks and balances, the public was asked to simply “trust” the founders” of these organizations (101). Blind trust, and the lack of knowledge associated with it, is one of the many things that can both build a society and tear it down. Zuboff also mentions how the “human experience is subjugated to surveillance capitalism’s market mechanisms and reborn as “”behavior””, which when paired with the previous depiction of “trust” parallels what the N.I.C.E. seem to be attempting (100). To supplement the already revealed goal for control of the N.I.C.E., the Fairy explains to Mark that “there are only two papers we don’t control, […] and we’ll smash them” (67). Here, it is further revealed just how the N.I.C.E. plan to manipulate the public and their behaviors prior to their full-scale focus on control, all while the public doesn’t know any better.