Abstract: Os engenheiros do caos is a book written by Giuliano Da Empoli about four scientists specializing in Big Data – D. Cummings, S. Bannon, M. Yiannopoulos and A. Finkelstein – who employ artificial intelligence to create communication machines that oppose the democracy. They created a “new political form” shaped by the internet.
Keywords: Big Data, Fake News, Extremism.
Os engenheiros do caos, written by Giuliano Da Empoli, tells the story of four scientists specializing in Big Data who support right-wing and far-right ideologues. They use artificial intelligence resources to create communication machines that oppose liberal democracy. The engineers in question are Dominic Cummings, Steve Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos and Arthur Finkelstein. Together they transformed the ancient carnivalesque practice of pretending to be with playful intentions into denying reality with the intention of gaining economic and political advantage. The book tells how these professionals created and/or supported a “new political form shaped by the internet and new technologies” (p.24).
Originally published in French in 2019, the book was translated into Portuguese by Arnaldo Bloch and released in the same year by Editora Vestígio, at a time when the far right was growing in Brazil under the leadership of Jair Bolsonaro, who is mentioned several times. . Its author, Giuliano Da Empoli, is an Italian with a degree in Political Science (Po Science) and has experience as a public administrator and adviser to Italian politicians such as Francesco Rutelli and Matteo Renzi.
The author’s narrative-argumentative strategy consists of interspersing data on professional training, political beliefs, deeds, supporters, successes and failures of each of the “engineers”. The first chapter is exemplary in this regard, presenting Steve Bannon as the “Trotsky of the populist revolution, mystic as an ideologue and man of action”, a servant and partner of right-wing leaders such as Donald Trump, Marine La Pen, Matteo Salvini and Viktor Orban. Da Empoli narrates Bannon’s deeds, such as the creation of the Socialist International, the goals of his world populist movement and his attempt to institute the government of technicians and businessmen said to be more upright and competent.
In the second chapter, Da Empoli reports that the union of skills and economic interests between comedian Beppe Grillo and digital marketing specialist Gianroberto Casaleggio, a “postmodern John Lennon”, created a political party — the 5 Star Movement. The successful strategy is explained step by step: 1. the comedian creates viral characters and narratives, based on the top ten comments on his blog, presenting culprits and solutions in a simplistic way, with algorithms improved by massive feedback from followers; 2. Calls for massive public protests and formally enters politics with anti-political speech; 3. Found an anti-political movement and recruit future candidates subordinated to their contracts (not a program); 4. occupies seats in parliament and the executive, taking control of state databases to generate algorithms that support its financial achievements.
In the third chapter, the author discusses the nature of “hate” and explains how social networks, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, contribute to the exacerbation of violence. Da Empoli states that the chaos engineers “realized […] that anger was a colossal source of energy, and that it was possible to exploit it to accomplish any goal, as long as you deciphered the codes and mastered the technology” ( p.50) The chapter concludes with a direct and chillingly illuminating quote: “’Find out why people are angry, tell them Europe is to blame, vote and get them to vote for Brexit’, that’s how one of the engineers of chaos summed up the elemental and terrible strategy of a referendum campaign that seemed doomed to failure.” (p.53).
In the fourth chapter, the author comments on the work of journalists Andrew Breitbart and Milo Yiannopoulos, both associated with Bannon. Breitbart defends the idea that the philosophy of the Frankfurt School would have undermined the foundations of the American consumer society. To combat it, he uses the tools of “virtual guerrilla warfare”: finding information, drawing attention, guiding the mainstream media (against themselves), expanding clicks and forming an opinion. Along with Bannon, Breitbart founded the website “Breitbart News”, which is dedicated to denouncing scandals involving liberal politicians. Bannon also founded the “Government Accountability Institute”, which launched a dossier against the Clinton couple. Also associated with Bannon, Yiannopoulos mobilizes “freedom of expression” as the main value in politics and assumes himself as a troll. For the author, Millo (like Trump) “tells things like they are” and has no time for political correctness and discussions about transgender bathrooms and organic gardens, while factories close and jobs are transferred to Mexico and the Far East.” (p.67).
The fifth chapter tells the story of Arthur Finkelstein, a political adviser who worked for Viktor Urban and whose list of clients includes Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Finkelstein developed a method of “demographic analysis” and exit polls for the US primary elections, called microtargeting. This method mainly consists of identifying the enemy, following Carl Schmitt’s model (p.74), and destroying the adversary through negative campaigns, with slogans such as: “he has been too liberal for a long time” (against the Al D’Amato’s opponent, Mario Cuomo) or “he’s not a real Jew” (against Bibi’s opponent, Shimon Peres).
The last chapter is dedicated to the engineer who helped secure the Brexit victory, Dominic Cummings. Addressing engineers from universities in California and the Canadian company AggregateIQ, Cummings would have sentenced: “tell me where I should send my volunteers, on which doors I should knock, to whom I should send emails and messages on social networks and what content use” (p.83). This principle is based on Physics: “the behavior of each molecule is not predictable, since it is subjected to interactions with an infinity of other molecules. The behavior of an agglomerate, on the other hand, is predictable, because through the observation of the system it is possible to deduce the average behavior.” (p.85). Thus, Physics and Data gains protagonism in politics. It identifies and situates supporters, identifies persuaders, and produces personalized messages.
Os engenheiros do caos is a fluid and pleasant read, thanks to direct speech, few literal quotes, verbs in the historical present, metaphors and good-natured pinches of irony. The opening of the chapters with analogies drawn from the world of arts, philosophy or literature also contributes to the value of the work, indicating a certain sophistication.
Two other positive attributes of the work stand out. The author presents a realistic perception of the human inclination to agree with lies and disregard facts, which is reflected in the inglorious battle against “fake news” (p.15). In practical terms, for professional liberal scholars and politicians, the book doesactically reveals how the “engineers of chaos” use the “communication machine” in projects aimed at destroying variants of liberal democracy.
However, the book has some limitations. It lacks an presentation. The author also uses the categories “fake news” and “conspiracy theories” interchangeably. He uses “national-populists” and “populism” without clear definition, going so far as to refer to “post-ideological techno populism” as a phenomenon “founded not on ideas but on algorithms” (p.25). The author uses “carnival” as a libertarian and timeless analogy in the face of singular, historical and random attitudes of the same phenomenon. Finally, he lists different explanation perspectives on the origin, nature and social impacts of hate, without criticizing or comparing the proposals. From Empoli it just accumulates them.
In this walk through divergent perspectives, the author arrives at the paroxysm of inducing the reader to think of democracy as a kind of instinct (in an evolutionary perspective): it is a “system that allows the members of a community to exercise control over their own destiny”. , not feeling at the mercy of events or any superior force.” (p.99).
Transferring the argument to the recent Brazilian reality, this would explain the pleasure of the “patriots” of the 8th of January, in Brasilia, in celebrating the seizure of power into their own hands. It happens that this hypothesis does not harmonize in a system, for example, with the sectarian nature of the networks constituted on the Internet, the power of algorithms, the ability to extract lessons from Physics and History. Throughout the book, these and other factors seem to play a decisive role in the attack on representative and liberal democracy.
Does the book fulfill its objectives well? To be exact, this is an open question, considering the lack of targets in the introduction. Da Empoli even tries not to appear pessimistic when he states that the “objective” of the writing is not “to deny the importance of concrete answers” to the crisis of representative democracy. He suggests that the interpretation of the crisis “requires a real paradigm shift” (p.100): if reality has changed — from a “Newtonian politics” to a “quantum politics” —, he says, it is necessary that we be like John Maynard Keynes suggested: “heretical, untimely and disobedient in the eyes of all those who preceded us”. Optimism soon vanishes when we realize that his suggestion for the democrats is stillborn because the author himself declares that the existence of quantum politics is already the sign of the death of Newtonian politics.
Summary of Os engenheiros do caos: como as fake news, as teorias da conspiração e os algoritmos estão sendo utilizados para disseminar ódio, medo e influenciar eleições
Jane Semeão – PhD in History from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), professor in the Departamento de História of the Universidade Regional do Cariri (URCA) and editor of the blog Resenha Crítica. Among other works, he wrote: Um “oásis” chamado Cariri: Instituto Cultural do Cariri, natureza, paisagem e construção identirária do sul cearense (1950-1970) e “O que a Austrália tem nos ensinar?” O Tempo Presente nos programas de História produzidos pela Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority – ANCARA (2008-2013). ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5231907042464544; ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6804-1640. E-mail: janesemeão@globo.com.
To cite this review
DA EMPOLI, Giuliano. Os engenheiros do caos: como as . São Paulo: Vestígio, 2019. 121p. Review by: SEMEÃO, Jane. Algorithms as ideology. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.10, mar./apr. 2023. Available in: em <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/algorithms-as-ideology-review-by-jane-semeaos-urca-review-of-book-os-engenheiros-do-chaos-by-giuliano-da-empoli/>. DOI: 10.29327/254374.3.10-10
Abstract: Os engenheiros do caos is a book written by Giuliano Da Empoli about four scientists specializing in Big Data – D. Cummings, S. Bannon, M. Yiannopoulos and A. Finkelstein – who employ artificial intelligence to create communication machines that oppose the democracy. They created a “new political form” shaped by the internet.
Keywords: Big Data, Fake News, Extremism.
Os engenheiros do caos, written by Giuliano Da Empoli, tells the story of four scientists specializing in Big Data who support right-wing and far-right ideologues. They use artificial intelligence resources to create communication machines that oppose liberal democracy. The engineers in question are Dominic Cummings, Steve Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos and Arthur Finkelstein. Together they transformed the ancient carnivalesque practice of pretending to be with playful intentions into denying reality with the intention of gaining economic and political advantage. The book tells how these professionals created and/or supported a “new political form shaped by the internet and new technologies” (p.24).
Originally published in French in 2019, the book was translated into Portuguese by Arnaldo Bloch and released in the same year by Editora Vestígio, at a time when the far right was growing in Brazil under the leadership of Jair Bolsonaro, who is mentioned several times. . Its author, Giuliano Da Empoli, is an Italian with a degree in Political Science (Po Science) and has experience as a public administrator and adviser to Italian politicians such as Francesco Rutelli and Matteo Renzi.
The author’s narrative-argumentative strategy consists of interspersing data on professional training, political beliefs, deeds, supporters, successes and failures of each of the “engineers”. The first chapter is exemplary in this regard, presenting Steve Bannon as the “Trotsky of the populist revolution, mystic as an ideologue and man of action”, a servant and partner of right-wing leaders such as Donald Trump, Marine La Pen, Matteo Salvini and Viktor Orban. Da Empoli narrates Bannon’s deeds, such as the creation of the Socialist International, the goals of his world populist movement and his attempt to institute the government of technicians and businessmen said to be more upright and competent.
In the second chapter, Da Empoli reports that the union of skills and economic interests between comedian Beppe Grillo and digital marketing specialist Gianroberto Casaleggio, a “postmodern John Lennon”, created a political party — the 5 Star Movement. The successful strategy is explained step by step: 1. the comedian creates viral characters and narratives, based on the top ten comments on his blog, presenting culprits and solutions in a simplistic way, with algorithms improved by massive feedback from followers; 2. Calls for massive public protests and formally enters politics with anti-political speech; 3. Found an anti-political movement and recruit future candidates subordinated to their contracts (not a program); 4. occupies seats in parliament and the executive, taking control of state databases to generate algorithms that support its financial achievements.
In the third chapter, the author discusses the nature of “hate” and explains how social networks, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, contribute to the exacerbation of violence. Da Empoli states that the chaos engineers “realized […] that anger was a colossal source of energy, and that it was possible to exploit it to accomplish any goal, as long as you deciphered the codes and mastered the technology” ( p.50) The chapter concludes with a direct and chillingly illuminating quote: “’Find out why people are angry, tell them Europe is to blame, vote and get them to vote for Brexit’, that’s how one of the engineers of chaos summed up the elemental and terrible strategy of a referendum campaign that seemed doomed to failure.” (p.53).
In the fourth chapter, the author comments on the work of journalists Andrew Breitbart and Milo Yiannopoulos, both associated with Bannon. Breitbart defends the idea that the philosophy of the Frankfurt School would have undermined the foundations of the American consumer society. To combat it, he uses the tools of “virtual guerrilla warfare”: finding information, drawing attention, guiding the mainstream media (against themselves), expanding clicks and forming an opinion. Along with Bannon, Breitbart founded the website “Breitbart News”, which is dedicated to denouncing scandals involving liberal politicians. Bannon also founded the “Government Accountability Institute”, which launched a dossier against the Clinton couple. Also associated with Bannon, Yiannopoulos mobilizes “freedom of expression” as the main value in politics and assumes himself as a troll. For the author, Millo (like Trump) “tells things like they are” and has no time for political correctness and discussions about transgender bathrooms and organic gardens, while factories close and jobs are transferred to Mexico and the Far East.” (p.67).
The fifth chapter tells the story of Arthur Finkelstein, a political adviser who worked for Viktor Urban and whose list of clients includes Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Finkelstein developed a method of “demographic analysis” and exit polls for the US primary elections, called microtargeting. This method mainly consists of identifying the enemy, following Carl Schmitt’s model (p.74), and destroying the adversary through negative campaigns, with slogans such as: “he has been too liberal for a long time” (against the Al D’Amato’s opponent, Mario Cuomo) or “he’s not a real Jew” (against Bibi’s opponent, Shimon Peres).
The last chapter is dedicated to the engineer who helped secure the Brexit victory, Dominic Cummings. Addressing engineers from universities in California and the Canadian company AggregateIQ, Cummings would have sentenced: “tell me where I should send my volunteers, on which doors I should knock, to whom I should send emails and messages on social networks and what content use” (p.83). This principle is based on Physics: “the behavior of each molecule is not predictable, since it is subjected to interactions with an infinity of other molecules. The behavior of an agglomerate, on the other hand, is predictable, because through the observation of the system it is possible to deduce the average behavior.” (p.85). Thus, Physics and Data gains protagonism in politics. It identifies and situates supporters, identifies persuaders, and produces personalized messages.
Os engenheiros do caos is a fluid and pleasant read, thanks to direct speech, few literal quotes, verbs in the historical present, metaphors and good-natured pinches of irony. The opening of the chapters with analogies drawn from the world of arts, philosophy or literature also contributes to the value of the work, indicating a certain sophistication.
Two other positive attributes of the work stand out. The author presents a realistic perception of the human inclination to agree with lies and disregard facts, which is reflected in the inglorious battle against “fake news” (p.15). In practical terms, for professional liberal scholars and politicians, the book doesactically reveals how the “engineers of chaos” use the “communication machine” in projects aimed at destroying variants of liberal democracy.
However, the book has some limitations. It lacks an presentation. The author also uses the categories “fake news” and “conspiracy theories” interchangeably. He uses “national-populists” and “populism” without clear definition, going so far as to refer to “post-ideological techno populism” as a phenomenon “founded not on ideas but on algorithms” (p.25). The author uses “carnival” as a libertarian and timeless analogy in the face of singular, historical and random attitudes of the same phenomenon. Finally, he lists different explanation perspectives on the origin, nature and social impacts of hate, without criticizing or comparing the proposals. From Empoli it just accumulates them.
In this walk through divergent perspectives, the author arrives at the paroxysm of inducing the reader to think of democracy as a kind of instinct (in an evolutionary perspective): it is a “system that allows the members of a community to exercise control over their own destiny”. , not feeling at the mercy of events or any superior force.” (p.99).
Transferring the argument to the recent Brazilian reality, this would explain the pleasure of the “patriots” of the 8th of January, in Brasilia, in celebrating the seizure of power into their own hands. It happens that this hypothesis does not harmonize in a system, for example, with the sectarian nature of the networks constituted on the Internet, the power of algorithms, the ability to extract lessons from Physics and History. Throughout the book, these and other factors seem to play a decisive role in the attack on representative and liberal democracy.
Does the book fulfill its objectives well? To be exact, this is an open question, considering the lack of targets in the introduction. Da Empoli even tries not to appear pessimistic when he states that the “objective” of the writing is not “to deny the importance of concrete answers” to the crisis of representative democracy. He suggests that the interpretation of the crisis “requires a real paradigm shift” (p.100): if reality has changed — from a “Newtonian politics” to a “quantum politics” —, he says, it is necessary that we be like John Maynard Keynes suggested: “heretical, untimely and disobedient in the eyes of all those who preceded us”. Optimism soon vanishes when we realize that his suggestion for the democrats is stillborn because the author himself declares that the existence of quantum politics is already the sign of the death of Newtonian politics.
Summary of Os engenheiros do caos: como as fake news, as teorias da conspiração e os algoritmos estão sendo utilizados para disseminar ódio, medo e influenciar eleições
Jane Semeão – PhD in History from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), professor in the Departamento de História of the Universidade Regional do Cariri (URCA) and editor of the blog Resenha Crítica. Among other works, he wrote: Um “oásis” chamado Cariri: Instituto Cultural do Cariri, natureza, paisagem e construção identirária do sul cearense (1950-1970) e “O que a Austrália tem nos ensinar?” O Tempo Presente nos programas de História produzidos pela Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority – ANCARA (2008-2013). ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5231907042464544; ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6804-1640. E-mail: janesemeão@globo.com.
To cite this review
DA EMPOLI, Giuliano. Os engenheiros do caos: como as . São Paulo: Vestígio, 2019. 121p. Review by: SEMEÃO, Jane. Algorithms as ideology. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.10, mar./apr. 2023. Available in: em <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/algorithms-as-ideology-review-by-jane-semeaos-urca-review-of-book-os-engenheiros-do-chaos-by-giuliano-da-empoli/>. DOI: 10.29327/254374.3.10-10
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Jane Semeão – PhD in History from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), professor in the Departamento de História of the Universidade Regional do Cariri (URCA) and editor of the blog Resenha Crítica. Among other works, he wrote: Um “oásis” chamado Cariri: Instituto Cultural do Cariri, natureza, paisagem e construção identirária do sul cearense (1950-1970) e “O que a Austrália tem nos ensinar?” O Tempo Presente nos programas de História produzidos pela Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority – ANCARA (2008-2013). ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5231907042464544; ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6804-1640. E-mail: janesemeão@globo.com.
