Technology is a lever that can be used to amplify power. Surveillance is the example du jour, but there are plenty of others. We are social beings, (vertices i

Technology is a lever that can be used to amplify power. Surveillance is the example du jour, but there are plenty of others. We are social beings, (vertices in the social graph) and we have relationships with (edges that connect us to) other individuals and groups of individuals. Some of these relationships are characterized by asymmetric power (influence & coercion) attributes. The aggregate effect of these relationships on us as individuals is sometimes beneficial, sometimes deleterious; an effect characterized in terms of personal liberty; economic utility, and perhaps other factors too. We naturally have an interest in understanding the benefits and risks inherent in this network of relationships; and in understanding the factors that maximize the aggregate benefit whilst reducing the aggregate risk. I am idly pondering what it would take to build a statistical model of the network of power relationships between individuals and groups, and explore how various types of technological power amplification change the distribution of reward and risk across individuals. I.e. does the amplification of existing power relationships through technological change increase the risk that personal liberty will be restricted? What about the economic impact? Is there a risk that the distribution of "personal liberty" will become more concentrated? How big is that risk, and what is the spread? What about economic wealth? Of course, this is just a silly thought experiment ... but I am sure that some of the readers here have access to both the computational resources and the raw data (graphs of interlocutors with power/influence attributes decorating the edges) to do this experiment ... if you haven't already done it. I'd be interested to know if any unclassified & publicly available results exist?