Techno-feudalism
Durand argues that [[Big Tech]] - Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft - recreates the political and economic logic of feudal times. The big platforms and digital environments have become like "medieval" fortresses that colonise cyberspace and prey on it: they gain all the land of their business and acquire the competition and complementary companies. In [[feudalism]], the peasant serf was attached to the land: he did not belong to the feudal lord, but to the land, which belonged to that lord. When we use Facebook or Google, we become inseparable from the [[data]] we generate on the digital earth. From these traces, a relationship of extreme dependence is created, from which it is difficult to escape because they make our lives easier.
Durand states that, far from favoring the autonomy of individuals, the most striking aspect of the digital economy is the return to relationships of dependency.
technofeudalism
A phrase from Yanis Varoufakis. (originally?)
The book on the topic: [[Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism?]]
Capitalism is dead. The #1 bestselling economist shows how the owners of big tech have become the world's feudal overlords.
I really hope he references [[McKenzie Wark]] ([[Capital is Dead]]).
It might look like a market, but Varoufakis says it’s anything but. Jeff (Bezos, the owner of Amazon) doesn’t produce capital, he argues. He charges rent. Which isn’t capitalism, it’s feudalism. And us? We’re the serfs. “Cloud serfs”, so lacking in class consciousness that we don’t even realise that the tweeting and posting that we’re doing is actually building value in these companies.
– [['Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse': interview with Yanis Varoufakis]]
- public document at doc.anagora.org/techno-feudalism
- video call at meet.jit.si/techno-feudalism
2024 03 23
2024 05 17
digital capitalism
digital capitalism online course
yanis varoufakis technofeudalism what killed capitalism
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