While the original Nietzschean wish for capital to play itself out, I’m thinking that the (Left) Accelerationism of the past twenty years might have more to do with a flash on the possibility to "Seize the Means of Production". With the popularization of computing and cybernetics, some might have felt that DIY will finally bring utopia.
As a graphic designer, I have worked alongside those who had started their careers with a centuries old technique of using hand-set type (hot type) as we moved from cold type (photographic) output to computerized systems. This type of publishing was very expensive. We continued to evolve from all-in-one, turn-key systems to what I later found to be referred to (by government contractors) as off-the-shelf (OTS) components made possible by the personal computer. Then came the internet. And now the smart phone. Distribution and material are not as pricey for someone in online publishing. Theoretically, almost anyone can be a publisher today. But what I think we are really seeing is that as OTS becomes today’s appliances, news, entertainment, and who knows what with 3D printing, stratification becomes more apparent as economics plays itself out. Doctors, lawyers and anyone who knows that what the market will bear sometimes knows no limit, will only contribute this disparity until, let’s say, a personal version of something like Chile’s Cybersyn is made into an app freely available to help each citizen of the world. -- - *Anthony Stephenson* *http://anthonystephenson.org/* <http://anthonystephenson.org/>
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