B runs a digital company called “A”. A is in the process of acquiring a monopoly on global sales. It is, in a way, a total company. Alongside its sales activity, A is reviving the fantasies of Nasa in the 1970s: building colonies and hangars in space. And B sees himself as the pilot of the Enterprise, the spaceship from the Star Trek series.

Why is the world's largest digital multinational, with a stranglehold on so many products, secretly plotting a huge escape into space? A is creating a logistical infrastructure of almost supernatural efficiency, radically transforming our relationship with the world.

In reality, it's not about B as an individual, nor about a company whose name is the first letter of the alphabet. Nor Jeff Bezos, nor Amazon. B is no one in particular. A is a symptom.

Planet B  is an essay that cross-references and invents metaphors in order to apprehend a growing monster. It tells the story of “Planet B”, the hypermarket-world engendered by the low resolution and speed of information propagation applied to everything. Like an outlet, Gwenola Wagon probes with seriousness and humor a logic whose delirious scale eludes us.

Credits

• Author : Gwenola Wagon
• Editing : Clémence Seurat
• Correction : Nathalie David
• Graphic design : Nuno da Luz
• Typefaces : Standard, Bryce Wilner (2019), licensed under SIL Open Font License 1.1 Bookerly and Ember Condensed, Dalton Maag (2020), licensed under ∀
• Printing : Tallinna Raamatutrükikoja OÜ
• Distribution : Hobo Diffusion
• Thanks to Pierre Cassou-Noguès, Yves Citton, Nuno da Luz, Stéphane Degoutin, Jérôme Delormas, Sarah Garcin, Marie Lechner and Clémence Seurat. The Wikimedia community and the authors who share their work.
• This work was supported by the EUR ArTeC and by the ANR under the program "Investissement d'avenir" (ANR-17- EURE-0008). With the participation of the Theory Experimentation Arts Media and Design Laboratory TEAMeD / AIAC - EA 4010 of the University of Paris 8.
• Legal deposit: August 2022 ISBN: 978-2-490148-10-3