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Comment by seveneightn9ne | Hacker News Reader

I'd passed this over on Netflix, assuming it would be too introductory. Is it interesting enough for someone who's already familiar with the premise from having been around on HN?

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Definitely. There wasn't a single idea in it that was new to me, and you'll easily pick up on where they're going with certain plot points long before they get there. (And yes, there's a "plot"!)

However, there were so many amazing ways they articulated things for non-technical audiences, in a cohesive way, that you'll get a ton out of it.

I especially recommend watching it with non-tech friends or family! Led to a ton of great discussions for me.

Last month I read a bunch of academic papers on modern surveillance theory (Zuboff, who appears in the film briefly, only represents one stand of contemporary thinking about surveillance, the field is much richer), and, like others, I still found this movie interesting even though it is fairly introductory. The presentation is both entertaining and effective, which I think is a major reason this movie has early signs of having been far more successful than previous attempts to highlight the same problems.

The fact that many of the voices in the film had a hand in developing the technologies they raise the alarm about also adds an intriguing edge--especially since it's easy to interpret their participation in either a positive or negative light.

I reacted the same initially, yet watched it on a whim.

The answer is sort of yes, in the sense that they provide you with more succinct explanations and analogies. This is useful if you want to explain this stuff to other people (who are not on HN).

Roughly no, if you’ve followed this topic, it will be the same drumbeat. It still might be worth watching since it’s an important issue and this is the most high profile exposé.

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