Brian et al, What a great and hopeful last paragraoh, Brian. Perhais, as you say, now that neoliberalism is attacking itself, there will be change…can be a more productive critique if the beast than hipster slants.
I will mention that Nobel’s book, which I’ve read very closely, not only analyzes the regimes behind search, but provides ideas; is a clarion call for what is needed to resurrect a 90s era value in public information - transparency, literacy, and accessibility to a wide range of sources rather than the singularity of google’s authority - and this from a black information scholar who is already versed in how information skews history. Thank you…lots more to read. Molly Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 6, 2022, at 10:07 AM, Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldr...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > The thing to conclude from this thread is that capitalism is a beast. You > hope it's gonna change, and then it just adds new fangs. We all watched this > happen despite (or even to some extent, because of) Nineties-era hopes that > decentralized networks would translate into a distributed productive basis > for a new society. Dyne.org took this hope on board in the most pragmatic way > possible, and Jaromil, your conclusions after two decades of sustained effort > are definitely heard on this end. It's sad to be the one who gives them a > theoretical framework, but this is where resistance comes from, right? I > don't think there's any way to share struggles, to socialize resistance, > without updating the critical analysis of power. And we're overdue for a > reboot on that account. > > Felix, your pamphlet does something fundamental in that regard, which is > basically to ask, is the mining in data-mining the same as the mining in > South America? Or in other words, has the raw expropriation of colonialism > ever been separable from the rule-governed exploitation of factory labor? The > answer that has emerged everywhere, and especially in the Americas, is no, > the beast of capitalism has those two heads. The pamphlet is particularly > interesting because it tries to grasp them together, and to see how they have > together caused the Great Acceleration of climate change, rather than > defaulting back to one or the other as the prime explanation. To me it is > certain that the Great Acceleration of the 1950s would have never happened > without the postwar spread of the cybernetic regime, which includes not just > computers but a vast organizational form, the corporate state. It takes a > willful ignorance not to see that this has always been a neocolonial, > extractive regime (the example of oil extraction, one of the biggest > consumers of CPU cycles, is there for all to see). Okay, that ignorance was > deliberately practiced by many of us for decades, out of hope, as a kind of > constructive wager - no regrets about it. But now is a time of resistance, > and it's really getting urgent to have more precise observations and stronger > theories about where the double-headed and heavily fanged beast of capitalism > is going. That's why I came out against the idea of techno-feudalism, and all > the reductive hipster concepts that now just limit our understanding, with no > political benefit in return. > > Since 2008 there has been huge uncertainty about how cybernetic capitalism > would evolve, because of insuperable contradictions within its financial > core. After Trump and Brexit, the just-in-time system of globalization came > equally into question. Now the Ukraine war, including China's qualified > support for Russia, has made it clear that this system of > production-distribution will not stand. We are headed for a major > restructuring, further influenced by the fearsome encroaching reality of > climate change. How is the existing system, the beast, cybernetic capitalism, > going to morph under these new conditions? > > For years on nettime we speculated about exactly that question, but each > crisis, from the dot-com bust onwards, was quelled by the injection of > central-bank money into the system. Now it seems that the free-money strategy > has reached its limits. All the world saw that China was able to use direct > state control of the economy to solve a major financial crisis on a 2008 > scale, centered in real estate and particularly around the Evergreen > corporation. Apparently they dealt with it, you don't hear any more about it. > This is definitely a clue. It is apparently possible to combine cybernetic > capitalism with a strong state. Whether or how that combination might come > into being in the so-called West is a real question. > > In any event I am certain that the thing we speculated about for so long is > now really happening. The neoliberal paradigm is being hit by all the > monsters that it has created - Russia, precarity, climate change - and at the > same time, AI is coming out of the box. A new production-distribution system > is both technically imaginable and widely desired. The next decade will see, > either generalized war and entropic breakdown, or a reformulation of the > exploitative/extractive combo. I reckon that option 2 is more likely, > although definitely with limited war, of the kind we're seeing now or maybe > worse. If you don't want to leave the right-wing ideologists in charge of the > question of a state-led, protective cybernetics, then now is the time to give > up the hipster concepts and restart the pragmatic analysis of what is indeed > a very ugly beast. How to grasp it as it emerges? > > courage to all, > > Brian > >> On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 5:27 AM Jaromil <jaro...@dyne.org> wrote: >> >> dear Brian, Felix and nettime readers, >> >> coincidentally, let me share some recent news, small but relevant to >> complete the analysis: >> >> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Lennart-Poettering-Out-Red-Hat >> >> let me complete with what this magazine (historically pro-systemd and >> aggressively posed against all critics) is perhaps afraid to tell: the >> master of systemd now works for Micro$oft. >> https://twitter.com/jaromil/status/1544618996833583104 I hope you don't mind >> me per-using your quote Brian. >> >> On Sun, 03 Jul 2022, Brian Holmes wrote: >> >> > This is totally on point, Jaromil. The tech industry has always been able >> > to think cybernetically - it has to, in order to handle interactive >> > networks with millions of users - but what you're pointing out, in a very >> > specific situation, is how it's now able to carry out integrated >> > strategies affecting entire fields or "modes of practice." In your >> > example, it means reshaping all the factors that condition the software >> > development process, including institutional ones such as the literature >> > on standards and the processes for their validation. >> > >> > On the global level both Google and Microsoft are notorious for >> > transforming governance through the introduction of particular types of >> > software and information-processing services that reshape the activity of >> > corporate officials and bureaucrats, and in that way, affect entire >> > societies. However I had never considered that Red Hat would be doing the >> > same within social-democratic spheres where FOSS development is supported >> > by public money. It's somewhat depressing news, because FOSS development >> > for public use is really one of the few places where the social-steering >> > capacities of Silicon Valley are challenged... I don't have the expertise >> > to fully evaluate what you're saying (although I have read about Devuan >> > and the systemd controversies!) - but anyway, yes, I think we are talking >> > about exactly the same thing here. >> >> I love how the research and works by Florian Gottke remind us about the >> importance of topping statues, an act operating through the language of >> liturgy, and firmly preluding radical changes in governance. >> >> And so there is a symbolic event last year worth mentioning: the topping of >> RMS from his role as prophet: we wrote about it here >> https://medium.com/think-do-tank/open-letter-to-the-free-software-movement-7ddc7429b474 >> - an open letter written together with Christina Derazenski, a big loss as >> I believe she'd be able to describe much better than me what is happening >> and through the lenses of feminism. >> >> Today we have the not-so-symbolic event of Linux development being steered >> by Micro$oft, with all implications enounced in this thread. >> >> So now let me once again use nettime to mark an event in time - this list is >> the best literary blockchain around! :^D >> >> Today we witness the epilogue of what was the F/OSS movement with all its >> dreams of glory and democracy or do-ocracy or whatever fascinated our friend >> Biella so much when describing Debian. Today we observe what you mention as >> a "classic cybernetic takeover" vastly overlooked by academic literature >> about governance and free software. >> >> I am fascinated by all this, but somehow relieved there will be no more a >> global F/OSS movement, just pockets of resistance. >> >> Foucault, Deleuze, Caronia... they have seen all this already. >> >> And they were right: being and becoming marginal, feels good. >> >> Also some security experts were right from the beginning, about using >> OpenBSD. >> >> ciao >> >> -- >> >> Denis "Jaromil" Roio https://Dyne.org think &do tank >> Ph.D, CTO & co-founder software to empower communities >> ✉ Haparandadam 7-A1, 1013AK Amsterdam, The Netherlands >> 𝄞 crypto κρυπτο крипто क्रिप्टो 加密 التشفير הצפנה >> ⚷ 6113D89C A825C5CE DD02C872 73B35DA5 4ACB7D10 >> >> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission >> # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, >> # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets >> # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l >> # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org >> # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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