finished reading Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
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).
@WildWoila @wildwoila@aus.social @pluralistic capitalism is what happens when you let capitalists regulate markets. When a market is controlled in such a way, artificial scarcity can drive up the rate of return on investment. This increased rate of return, combined with the ability to prevent others entering that market (motes, economies of scale, etc), leads to inflated valuations. People are incentivized to leverage both of these to capture other market segments (Uber's business model, etc).
Repeat.
@WildWoila @wildwoila@aus.social @pluralistic I read it and found it very interesting. Thought provoking and spot on on many topics. Recommended!
(1/2)
@WildWoila
> how effective are they at manipulating our desires?
Not as effective as they want their customers to think, as @pluralistic says. But I suspect more effective than he gives them credit for. My understanding is that it's all about the power to nudge at scale.
@WildWoila @wildwoila@aus.social @pluralistic
Interesting book. But TechnoFeudalism (TF) is simply an extreme form of capitalism subject to the vagaries of a market economy. But the more interesting part of TF companies is their attempt to become de facto East-India type companies. (The East India Company received a corporate franchise to assume country-like powers from England in 1600 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company], e.g., becoming supra national, expropriating book copyrights for LLM training,
1/2
@WildWoila @wildwoila@aus.social @pluralistic
building a city state on Mars, signing contracts for nuclear power plant generated energy, having mercenaries kill citizens of other countries with impunity). The problem for TF companies is that they don't receive franchises from the United States. It will be interesting to see how far TF companies can transgress the rights of individuals and government entities before the US (and other countries) clip their wings.
2/2
(2/2)
Influence operations can't overwrite (most) people's minds. No amount of social media nagging will convince me to buy a McVomit burger. But the right amount might convince me to buy a vegan version of the same burger from Lord of the Fries.
Similarly, if a party has 20% support, no amount of targeted influencing will win them an election majority. But a party that can get to 45% and can afford to outbid their opponents, might be able to nudge their way to 51%.
I think you're right about scale. The effect might be marginal, such that an individual wouldn't notice, but across millions of people it adds up enough to == profit.
@cykonot @WildWoila @wildwoila@aus.social @pluralistic I think some responsibility lies with the people, either as consumers or voters, not giving a damn about what we call their digital "rights".
Selfish, ignorant people => Selfish, ignorant leaders.
