yanis on technofeudalism
Yanis Varoufakis on the death of capitalism, Starmer and the tyranny of big tech (sept 2023) 33 min video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9lJQONTC7Y&t=4s]
yanis varoufakis on his book technofeudalism
notes/quotes:
only china and us have big tech.. europe/britain.. nothing .. we are irrelevant.. these complex discussions have rendered us irrelevant w/o cloud capital
oi.. cloud capital is not what we need.. need a means for legit global detox leap
2 min – the great transformation that created modern word from feudalism (predicated on land ownership – wealth transferred as rent) to capitalism (predicated on machine ownership – wealth came from profits.. land became commodity).. this is beginning of modern world
3 min – by tf i mean.. c triumphed so magnificently that it created a mutant version of it.. cloud capital.. network of machines/software allows us to talk to one another.. big tech.. this new version is very diff beast.. if own it.. own new form of digital land.. allows new lord.. ie: bezos.. to charge rent.. they don’t produce anything but charge 40% on price everything sold to you..
not diff.. maybe diff verse.. but same song
5 min – point in book.. this is a great transformation.. explains reason why we have so much anxiety today.. nothing like before.. gigantic disconnect between amt of money in econ.. yet investment at lowest level.. answer in this fantastic/violent transformation from c to tf
everybody always says that.. hari present in society law.. always true.. and will be that way until we get out of sea world ie: hari rat park law
6 min – rents paid by capitalists.. for first time.. capital reproduced by people who are not paid laborers.. ie: you produce value to google maps et al w/o being a paid laborer.. i call that a cloud serf..
9 min – voluntary serfdom is the worst kind.. doesn’t matter if paid or not.. fact is that you are doing a lot of work.. don’t think it is work.. but replenishing capital of tech co’s.. so capital produced w/o wage labor.. all labor not remunerated.. that shrinks moneys.. so banks have to print more.. so bankers in a state.. don’t know what to do..
voluntary compliance ness et al
10 min – this is not a theoretical book.. it’s an attempt to understand the world we live in.. including micro level.. level of our kids.. used to be distinct demarkation between work and play.. that’s gone..
sea world.. since forever.. so history ness et al.. is a cancerous distraction.. we need to try something diff.. not a newer version of whatever we think has happened in the past
11 min – young people now constantly angst ridden about social media.. because know future employer seeing it.. so trying to create self they think is going to sell.. happening subconsciously/voluntarily.. but means there’s no autonomy of liberal individual anymore.. also means we can have no social democracy.. possible but have to become a new luddite.. switch off phone.. maybe works for individual.. but not an escape root for society/humanity
deeper issue.. haven’t been legit free since forever.. and social democracy.. any form of democratic admin.. is part of the same song keeping us from legit freedom.. cancerous distraction
12 min – my defn of c: 1\ markets.. unlike feudalism.. market did all work to coord human activity 2\ profits.. what lubricates c.. if i’m right.. both are now gone.. they are optional now
13 min – bezo doesn’t make money out of profits now.. out of rents (isn’t that the same thing).. no.. it’s the exact opposite.. reason c such a major advancement.. because of shifts from rents collected to profits.. if markets replace by digital thieves.. and profits replaced by rents.. that’s not c anymore.. could call it platform c..
diff version.. not diff
14 min – by dropping the word feudalism in early 19th cent.. intellectuals helped us understand that this was a big thing/transformation.. that’s what i’m trying to do.. that world no longer follows same laws
oi.. intellectness as cancerous distraction we can’t seem to let go of.. there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental expo labeling).. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it
15 min – diff between tesla and vw.. vw shifting to electric.. so now tesla.. not.. because no cloud capital in germany.. money comes out of tesla shift from fine engineering to cloud capital.. vw doesn’t have access to that.. that’s why german business model is collapsing.. if just copy.. germany has failed.. only china and us have big tech.. we are irrelevant.. all discussions over last 7 yrs has lended us irrelevant w/o cloud capital
17 min – (right response?) i don’t think solution is.. social democracy can’t do it.. demo capitalists bunk.. we need to socialize cloud capital.. must belong to people who produce it.. and that’s not bezos..
so coops.. not new.. writing about it and doing it since forever.. bakunin and again.. since forever..
18 min – ie’s: imagine we change corp law.. such that every employee gets 1 share moment employed.. can’t be leased.. same way you have one vote.. can’t trade/lease.. but it gives you a vote.. imagine how that would change the world.. democracy is extended to the corp.. completely market based system still.. but drop two problematic markets: share and labor.. no diff between worker/owner.. profits/wages..
oi.. needs to be sans any form of m\a\p.. identity is a cancerous distraction
19 min – *people love to feel they have their rights.. not compulsory to participate in every vote.. but have right to vote.. ethical standard that you would only vote for things you put into learning about.. **it is a far better management system than the top down thing
*not legit free people..
oikos (the economy our souls crave).. ‘i should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.’ – gaston bachelard, the poetics of space
**oi.. how is this diff? .. same song.. you talked above about 7 yrs of discussions making people irrelevant.. cancerous distractions.. oi
22 min – reminds us he was finance minister..
so.. sinclari perpetuation law et al.. graeber make it diff law.. et al.. graeber rethink law et al..
25 min – yes.. we are the great losers..
27 min – what do you offer people truth or hope.. they don’t want lies.. they just don’t want you.. esp after you’ve been spat out by the system.. to keep telling them things which they know to be true which are painful.. but which don’t lead to the answers of what we do tomorrow
warning ness et al.. except.. could be answer for tomorrow/today
30 min – ai not born yesterday.. cloud capital is based on ai..
31 min – a vision of how i’d like cloud capital to work.. wouldn’t have to use uber.. imagine if own own digital id.. don’t now.. need either bank or google.. who uses your credit card to state who you are.. but if has own id in digital world and could say ‘i want to go___ who wants to bid for it’.. you choose which outfit will take you where you want to do.. very similar to what we are doing now.. but world’s apart from an econ/ethical/sociological pov we have
we have much deeper problems than hailing a ride..
ie: need means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening as global detox so we can org around legit needs
33 min – (what would you do to change the world) two things are absolutely crucial.. 1\ democratize the workplace in way we discussed.. one person one chair one vote 2\ central bank to provide everyone w free digital account w pin number.. let barclay’s and loyds find reasons to exist other than payment systems.. these two moves would really revolutionize the world we live in .. sound like small moves.. but world would not look same if they were made
oh my.. same song.. (democratic admin and identity ness) not legit change.. been talking about versions of this since forever.. (currently being smacked in the face of this while reading don’t fear invoke anarchy).. we can’t seem to let go of any form of m\a\p in order to see our essence and to org around those legit needs
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via michel bauwens tweet [https://x.com/mbauwens/status/1712049427123507659?s=20]:
Excellent conversation on Yanis Varoufakis new book on Techno-Feudalism, the new class reality of cloud capital, in which capitalists themselves have become serfs: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9lJQONTC7Y&t=4s]
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also via michel tweet [https://x.com/mbauwens/status/1713549073159250381?s=20]:
What exactly does Varoufakis means with the concept of Techno-Feudalism ? https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Techno-Feudalism
Responding to an interview by Evgeny Morozov:
YV: The question is this: Is capitalism undergoing one more of its many metamorphoses, thus warranting nothing more than a new epithet, e.g. rentier capitalism, platform capitalism, hyper-capitalism or xxxxx-capitalism? Or are we witnessing a qualitative transformation of capitalism into a brand new exploitative mode of production? I think the latter. Moreover, this is not just a theoretical issue. If I am right, grasping the radicality of this transformation is crucial to opposing this new systemic exploitation.
My claim is that, similarly today, capitalism – like feudalism in the 1780s – is being usurped by a far more exploitative and very distinct new extractive/exploitative system (which I call techno-feudalism), one that is arriving complete with a new ruling class.
Central bank money has replaced private profit (as the system’s main fuel and lubricant) and digital fiefdoms/platforms have become the realm in which value and capital are extracted from the majority by a tiny oligarchy.
Let me explain this in greater detail:
Hypothesis 1: Central bank money replaced private profits as the system’s driver
Profitability no longer drives the system-as-a-whole, even though it remains the be-all and end-all for individual entrepreneurs. Consider what happened in London on August 12, 2020. It was the day markets learned that the British economy shrank disastrously – and by far more than analysts had expected (more than 20% of national income had been lost in the first seven months of 2020). Upon hearing the grim news, financiers thought: ‘Great! The Bank of England, panicking, will print even more pounds and channel them to us to buy shares. Time to buy shares!’
but it does.. 10-day-care-center\ness et al.. marsh exchange law.. graeber exchange law.. et al
Hypothesis 2: Digital platforms are replacing markets
Amazon.com, Facebook, etc. are not markets. As you enter them, you leave capitalism behind. Within these platforms, one algorithm (belonging to one person or to very few persons) decides what is on sale, who sees which commodity is available, and how much rent the owner of the platform will keep from the profits of vassal-capitalists allowed to trade within the platform. In short, more and more economic activity is shifting from markets to digital fiefs. And that’s not all.
ha.. if only
Summing up:
Capital is getting stronger but capitalism is dying. A new system is taking over in which a new ruling class owns and runs both the state money that lubricates it (instead of profits) and the new non-market realms in which the very, very few make the many work on their behalf. ..in which unwaged or precarious work is performed by the masses – who begin to resemble techno-peasants.
not new/diff
Techno-feudalism is not merely feudalism with gadgets. It is simultaneously much more advanced than capitalism and reminiscent of feudalism.
In summary, what Bezos, Musk, et al. are accomplishing through their massive investments cannot be understood in terms of either feudalism or capitalism.
Feudalism was based on the direct extraction of experiential/use value from peasants.
Capitalism was based on the extraction of surplus labour from waged labour.
Technofeudalism is a new system in which the techno-lords are extracting a new power to make the rest of us do things on their behalf.
If I am right, by continuing to call this new environment… capitalism, we would miss the opportunity to appreciate the radically different, and new, processes determining our lives in the here and now. Techno-feudalism, I think, comes much closer to capturing this brave (albeit, dystopic) new world.”
oi.. still not new/diff.. intellectness as cancerous distraction we can’t seem to let go of.. there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental expo labeling).. to facil a legit global detox leap.. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it
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be you. 