Data is the New Oil is a seriously underrated metaphor:
- started off as just a curiosity for nerds
- creates new companies and industries and vastly improves the productivity of some existing ones
- control over sources or extraction/transport infrastructure makes some individuals/companies/nations rich and powerful
- this has absolutely no tendency to be good for their character and ethics
- transporting and processing large quantities increases the risk of toxic leaks, which can cause a lot of local damage
- when successfully used, produces exhaust products that are relatively harmless in small amounts but cumulatively dangerous
- use becomes integrated into the economy and is hard for individuals to avoid
- which is taken as consent by those who control the extraction and exploitation