Taking a closer look at two books—Yanis Varoufakis's 'Technofeudalism' and Eva Dou's 'House of Huawei'—reveals the deep entanglement of technology and politics.
I agree strongly with the point about the underlying material production supporting the internet (and finance for that matter) is more important than people want to admit. This is also the thesis of basically every book by Vaclav Smil, and probably why I have read so many of his books which basically make the same point. It was also through Smil that I came to understand throughput (though I prefer the term flux) as a central organizing principle for complex systems like companies, governments, and organisms.
I think there might even be a connection between the importance of flux as an organizing principle and the power of tech/finance. Tech and finance are better ways to make a profit than farming or manufacturing because they are both ways of being a middle man in a large number of transactions. Thus they are important nodes of control. One could perhaps even say that tech/finance are the superstructure sitting atop the farming and manufacturing base. But if there is no base then eventually the superstructure gets Wyle E Coyote'd.
My impression is that no economic system can do away with materiality (the material basis is a necessary presupposition, I think), but we're witnessing a process of pronounced centralization of capital and resources in the hands of fewer and fewer entities, while the average person feels more and more dispossessed, marginalised, and even gaslit.
We're getting trapped into a digital cage that wants us constantly under surveillance, manipulated, and limited in what we can do, say, and think. To facilitate this, we're being led to stand in front of a screen, atomised and distracted by long working hours mostly in toxic environments that often don't even cover basic expenses, escapist visions of fake lives, or futile bickering over mostly divisive secondary issues.
Also, an ideology that glorifies renting over owning and giving up stuff (especially beautiful stuff) , traveling, quality food, sunlight, time, socialising, etc., seems to be pushed by politicians, media (mostly kept in check by the very powers they should be checking), and 'experts'.
So, perhaps, Varoufakis's view reflects more the world most people live in than the reality that keeps this world in place.
In fact, it's reasonable for people to ask themselves: if the system doesn't want me to go to restaurants/theaters/cinemas, to own property, to book a holiday abroad, to use my car, etc., what kind of capitalism is this? Even alienated and alienating work itself, understood in terms of the 'exploitation of the proletariat' (production of material goods, factories), seems to be on the way out, according to the picture being painted for us, by policies that have moved it further from the eyes and reach of Western people and also in view of what's coming, i.e., AI.
The Covid years were an example of this kind of apparently anti-capitalist current (which, by the way, saw local businesses, the places where people congregate, socialise, and support local economies, go bust while huge profits were being made on a global scale by Big Pharma and Big Tech).
Meanwhile, the few entities that have a monopoly on means and power, in an unholy communion of private and public sector, are competing for the appropriation of more and more natural resources, energy, land, livestock, in other words, all the 100% material things they've been telling us to use less of or do without.
Interesting take on both. Much appreciated.
I agree strongly with the point about the underlying material production supporting the internet (and finance for that matter) is more important than people want to admit. This is also the thesis of basically every book by Vaclav Smil, and probably why I have read so many of his books which basically make the same point. It was also through Smil that I came to understand throughput (though I prefer the term flux) as a central organizing principle for complex systems like companies, governments, and organisms.
Thanks, Joe - good reminder to read more Vaclav Smil!
I think there might even be a connection between the importance of flux as an organizing principle and the power of tech/finance. Tech and finance are better ways to make a profit than farming or manufacturing because they are both ways of being a middle man in a large number of transactions. Thus they are important nodes of control. One could perhaps even say that tech/finance are the superstructure sitting atop the farming and manufacturing base. But if there is no base then eventually the superstructure gets Wyle E Coyote'd.
My impression is that no economic system can do away with materiality (the material basis is a necessary presupposition, I think), but we're witnessing a process of pronounced centralization of capital and resources in the hands of fewer and fewer entities, while the average person feels more and more dispossessed, marginalised, and even gaslit.
We're getting trapped into a digital cage that wants us constantly under surveillance, manipulated, and limited in what we can do, say, and think. To facilitate this, we're being led to stand in front of a screen, atomised and distracted by long working hours mostly in toxic environments that often don't even cover basic expenses, escapist visions of fake lives, or futile bickering over mostly divisive secondary issues.
Also, an ideology that glorifies renting over owning and giving up stuff (especially beautiful stuff) , traveling, quality food, sunlight, time, socialising, etc., seems to be pushed by politicians, media (mostly kept in check by the very powers they should be checking), and 'experts'.
So, perhaps, Varoufakis's view reflects more the world most people live in than the reality that keeps this world in place.
In fact, it's reasonable for people to ask themselves: if the system doesn't want me to go to restaurants/theaters/cinemas, to own property, to book a holiday abroad, to use my car, etc., what kind of capitalism is this? Even alienated and alienating work itself, understood in terms of the 'exploitation of the proletariat' (production of material goods, factories), seems to be on the way out, according to the picture being painted for us, by policies that have moved it further from the eyes and reach of Western people and also in view of what's coming, i.e., AI.
The Covid years were an example of this kind of apparently anti-capitalist current (which, by the way, saw local businesses, the places where people congregate, socialise, and support local economies, go bust while huge profits were being made on a global scale by Big Pharma and Big Tech).
Meanwhile, the few entities that have a monopoly on means and power, in an unholy communion of private and public sector, are competing for the appropriation of more and more natural resources, energy, land, livestock, in other words, all the 100% material things they've been telling us to use less of or do without.