Chapter 1 - Introduction

This episode sets up the big questions behind this doctoral thesis: how do waves of advertising innovation follow well-established scholarly theories about technological revolutions & financial capital, and what can this history can tell us about where AI is headed next?It lays out the historical backdrop, explains what makes AI different from earlier tech shifts, and makes the case for why advertising is an optimal industry to study these changes as they unfold.00:00 What This Thesis Is Really About01:14 Carlota Perez and Technological Revolutions02:32 Is AI a Sixth Technological Revolution?03:50 How AI Rewrites Competitive Economics04:21 From Deterministic to Probabilistic Computing06:16 Following the Capital: Why Data and Models Matter07:46 Why Advertising Is the Ideal AI Case Study09:23 Attention, Surveillance, and Algorithmic Identity12:24 The Two Research Questions Going Forward