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Originally Posted by Keeping It Gimple
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this was an engrossing read, and it made for an interesting morning. thanks.
the comments were good too. some good criticisms in there, even if not as well crafted as the original piece.
i could not miss the irony of these words after the end of the article though:
Postcapitalism is published by Allen Lane on 30 July. Paul Mason will be asking whether capitalism has had its day at a sold-out Guardian Live event on 22 July.
it's superfunny, in context.
i have some toughts about the thing but not sure they will be welcome.
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Originally Posted by schizophrenicroom
gimple- there's an article in the atlantic this month called "the end of work" that goes hand in hand with this. i'm not too jazzed about the "sharing economy" because of the instability/wages with companies like postmates or uber, but what do i know.
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right, i think the terms are confusing. uber uses it to rent peons, the article is talking more about open source and giving away ideas for free. think more of a "gift economy" where everyone just donates their ideas & information to the common good.
even with that dream, there are still the other 2 types of matter to deal with-- matter itself ("old matter," stuff that has mass and volume) and energy (e=mc^2). information IS indeed a 3rd type of matter but not the whole of it. while information "wants to be free", classic matter wants to stay put and be weighed down by gravity, and energy just wants to disperse and not be channeled into our machines and devices.
so the article's utopia works on the assumption that machines will take care of that whole matter and energy thing and we'll deal only in software and dreams. but that's a pretty massive assumption. maybe it's achievable but we don't know what will happen then.
i love that utopia, but knowing enough about human nature's hyerarchical tendencies and power obsessions, i wonder if it would be truly a liberation, or just a new chessboard for more powergames and mindfucks by the ruling sociopaths.
i really don't know. but we'll find out eventually if we survive long enough...
i do fear devolution into a new feudalism-- the rise of the corporate lords, rendered nearly immortal by replaceable parts, and favoring their progeny over everybody else to the point where they become a different species and social mobility is sheer fantasy. the transhuman wet dream of will-to-power.