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
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,
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@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.
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