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The next evolution of Capitalism
How much is Capitalism changing due to the Silicon Revolution in the means of production.
- A bunch of books, articles and reviews have been released over the last few months considering the short and long term future of the techno-economy. We are on the cusp of Silicon Revolution's "Golden Age", when the people rein in the excesses of the capital market's hypergrowth excesses. This story was originally created in the Summer of 2015, my hope was to read both "Post Capitalism" and "The 2nd Machine Age" and write a blog on my views as to the nature of the changes coming; but life got in the way.
- The first and most substantial contribution is
The end of capitalism has begunThe red flags and marching songs of Syriza during the Greek crisis, plus the expectation that the banks would be nationalised, revived briefly a 20th-century dream: the forced destruction of the market from above. For much of the 20th century this was how the left conceived the first stage of an economy beyond capitalism.- and it had been preceded in my feeds by this review of the 2nd Machine Age
Securing Justice in the Second Machine AgeI've just finished the Second Machine Age by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, which is an essential read for those looking to understand, as the Labour Party now is, the next decade and beyond.- here some other contributions mainly from Left thinkers
Shaping A Social Democratic Digital RevolutionSocial Democrats consider themselves to be the party of social and technological progress. The political left must therefore address digitisation as a policy issue. There must be no doubt in our minds that our traditional values of freedom, justice and solidarity continue to apply in the digital realm just as they do in our analogue ...
Jon Cruddas MP's speech about building a digital state: full textBuilding a Digital State for Innovation and Democracy Speech to the Institute of Government Thursday, 27 November, 2014 Thank you Peter for inviting me to take part in your debate about effective government. I'd also like to add a thank you to Stefan Magdalinski for his contribution to this speech.
Stumbling and MumblingPaul Mason's claim that we're entering the post-capitalist era has met some some sneering from the right. But I wonder: might we not be reverting to a pre-capitalist era instead? I mean this in three different senses. First, we might be seeing a tendency for people to have multiple jobs.
I can't wait for the next Airbnb or Uber, but we can't let them kill middle-class jobs | Tom WatsonIt's safe to say that Hillary Clinton is no luddite. But the 2016 US presidential hopeful acknowledged this week that new technology is transforming the world of work and warned that we need to wake up to the consequences. She was right to do so.- In November, Anne Pettifor was invited to a seminar on Mason's book, "Post Capitalism", and published her speech notes, critiquing Mason for his reliance on Capitalism's mutations which she disputes, the mechanism and lack of human agency in Capitalist development which he sees in the opposition to capitalism and his focus on profit, when rent taking is a more prevalent form of capitalist accumulation. Her blog is immediately below, and the full notes s a .pdf at the bottom of this page.
Is capitalism "mutating" into an infotech utopia?I was privileged to be invited by the St. Paul's Institute to discuss (on the 3rd November, 2015) the thesis in Paul Mason's recent book PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future with a keynote speech from the author. Mason's book is both a riveting and intellectually exhilarating read.- This is a californian libertarian's view of the techno-economy, possibly the end game for people like Uber.
What happens when engineers run the world?Who Owns the Future? Jaron Lanier Allen Lane, 384pp, £20 To Save Everything, Click Here: Technology, Solutionism and the Urge to Fix Problems that Don't Exist Evgeny Morozov Allen Lane, 432pp, £20 On Christmas Day 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a Northwest Airlines plane wearing customised underpants stuffed with explosives.- It couldn't be complete with a look at what Marx has to say, and in the Grundrisse, he wrote the "Fragment On Machines", and I have a precis, a let me google that for you, and a .pdf which is at the bottom of the page..
... is the Fragment On Machines?It's always a bit embarassing when you're like "hey why don't we go/do ..." and someone's all "Yeah, let's! How do we ...?" and you're going "Well, uhh, actually, I'm not totally sure how, but I think I heard one time that maybe..." That's how it was for me a bit.
Let me google that for youFor all those people who find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than google it for themselves.- When looking at the future of capitalism, I believe that one needs to consider this book, it's not the second age, it's the fifth.
Publications - Carlota Perez"Financial bubbles, crises and the role of government in unleashing golden ages" 2013. "Financial bubbles, crises and the role of government in unleashing golden ages" In Pyka, A. and Burghof, H.P. (eds.) (2013) Innovation and Finance. London: Routledge, Ch.2, pp. 11-25 Working Paper 2012 FINNOV WP-2-12. Forthcoming in Pyka, A.- Here's the .pdf for Fragment on Machines.
