enshittification: technofeudalism
Leftists have been predicting the death of capitalism since The Communist Manifesto [...] but capitalism has finally run out of gas. Capitalism has died – but it wasn't replaced by socialism. Rather, capitalism has given way to feudalism.
in "Pluralistic: Autoenshittification" 24 jul 2023
No colapso das tecnologias digitais voltaremos à sociedade feudal (*) Ou já lá chegámos, se já todos desistiram da luta., já no espectro oposto a aceleração destas acaba igual, mas pior. Temos um glimpse da postcapitalist utopia na "race to turn your car into a digital extraction machine" 24 jul 2023 — mas temos caso igual dos tractores 12 jan 2023 às impressoras 7 ago 2022 et al, encontrarão semelhante tentação de domínio senhorial em qualquer produto que se reinventa serviço por subscrição além dos monopólios mais óbvios do vale da silicone.
Are car execs just the latest generation of rubes who've been suckered by Silicon Valley bullshit and convinced that apps are a magic path to profitability? Nope. Car execs are sophisticated businesspeople, and they're surfing capitalism's latest – and last – hot trend: dismantling capitalism itself. Car companies are on the forefront of postcapitalism, and they understand that digital is the key to rent-extraction.
in "Pluralistic: Autoenshittification" 24 jul 2023
Seguimos do processo de enshittification em curso, termo que julgamos cunhado pelo Cory Doctorow 21 jan 2023 e resumido posteriormente nesta entrada:
Enshittification is the process by which digital platforms devour themselves: first they dangle goodies in front of end users. Once users are locked in, the goodies are taken away and dangled before business customers who supply goods to the users. Once those business customers are stuck on the platform, the goodies are clawed away and showered on the platform's shareholders.
in "Pluralistic: Gig apps trap reverse centaurs in wage-stealing Skinner boxes" 12 abr 2023
Atrás então: feudalismo.
For hundreds of years, European civilization was dominated by rents, not markets. A "rent" is income that you get from owning something that other people need to produce value. The first capitalists hated rent. The "free market" of Adam Smith wasn't a market that was free from regulation – it was a market free from rents [...] because once a monopoly emerged, it would become a chokepoint through which a rentier could cream off the profits [of capitalists].
in "Pluralistic: Autoenshittification" 24 jul 2023
De volta ao futuro: app—ismo.
Today, we live in a rentier's paradise. People don't aspire to create value – they aspire to capture it: don't provide a service, just figure out a way to interpose yourself between the provider and the customer. Digital feudalism hasn't stopped innovating – it's just stopped innovating good things.
in "Pluralistic: Autoenshittification" 24 jul 2023
Cita-se o "Technofeudalism - What Killed Capitalism" 2023 do Yanis Varoufakis, carros a exemplo:
Remember when BMW announced that it was going to rent you the seatwarmer in your own fucking car? Not to be outdone, Mercedes announced that they were going to rent you your car's accelerator pedal, charging an extra $1200/year to unlock a fully functional acceleration curve. Once the car-makers add semiconductors, each one of those features comes out (...) with every button on that fakakta touchscreen wired directly into your credit-card.
in "Pluralistic: Autoenshittification" 24 jul 2023
...com muitos outros do lobby contra o right to repair e sobretudo a renda maior: propriedade intelectual.
The repair wars are just a skirmish in a vast, invisible fight that's been waged for decades: the War On General-Purpose Computing, where tech companies use the law to make it illegal for you to reconfigure your devices so they serve you, rather than their shareholders. General purpose computers are antithetical to technofeudalism – all the rents extracted by technofeudalists would go away if others (tinkereres, co-ops, even capitalists!) were allowed to reconfigure our devices.
IP is key to understanding the rise of technofeudalism. The thing that stands between you and an alternative app store, an interoperable social media network that you can escape to while continuing to message the friends you left behind, or a car that anyone can fix or unlock features for is IP, not technology. Under technofeudalism, control comes from rents (owning things), not profits (selling things).
in "Pluralistic: Autoenshittification" 24 jul 2023
♪ sellrent water to a fish ♪ sellrent the time to a clock ♪
(xtra) (too many beers?)