304 pages
English language
Published 2024 by Melville House Publishing.
Welcome to technofeudalism . . .
Perhaps we were too distracted by the pandemic, or the endless financial crises, or the rise of TikTok. But under cover of them all, a new and more exploitative system has been taking hold. Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies after the crash of 2008 went to big tech instead. With it they funded the construction of their private cloud fiefdoms and privatized the internet.
Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China.
Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: …
Welcome to technofeudalism . . .
Perhaps we were too distracted by the pandemic, or the endless financial crises, or the rise of TikTok. But under cover of them all, a new and more exploitative system has been taking hold. Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies after the crash of 2008 went to big tech instead. With it they funded the construction of their private cloud fiefdoms and privatized the internet.
Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China.
Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.
Exzellent piece of work, absolute surprise to see Varoufakis getting to the same conclusions as Cory Doctorow. What Cory calls enshittification leading to chokepoint capitalism, for Yannis is the mechanism leading to techno-feudalism. Brilliant and great insight.
However: how to get out of it remains absolutely unclear
Late-stage capitalism has given way to cloud-based fiefs, and we are the serfs. I need convincing on some of the detail (e.g. how effective are they at manipulating our desires?), but mostly agree with his main argument. Pairs well with Cory Doctorow's #enshittification ideas (@pluralistic@mamot.fr).
This was a fascinating read. Essentially Varoufakis argues that capitalism is actually over, and that we are now in an era where rent derived from "digital fiefs" is dominant (e.g.: Amazon doesn't produce goods or acquire capital in the tratitional sense, but because no seller can survive without selling on Amazon, it operates like a fief extracting rent from the vassals (sellers) who have no option but to use their site). It's pretty heavy economic theory, but he frames it as a conversation with his late father, and does a good job at simplifying and explaining what he talks about.
Very interesting, and very convincing.
