Welcome to the Age of Technofeudalism
www.wired.com
In Yanis Varoufakis’ latest book, the former Greek finance minister argues that companies like Apple and Meta have treated their users like modern-day serfs.
  • Endmaker@lemmy.worldEnglish
    45·
    6 months ago

    You can introduce interoperability. I am on X. I can’t go to Bluesky. Let’s say that Elon Musk decides to block me because I said something he didn’t like. He has blocked me before for a couple of weeks. Now, I have more than a million followers on X. I cannot leave without losing them. If I go to Bluesky, I have 10 followers. Interoperability would mean that if I go to another platform, to Bluesky, when I post something on Bluesky, then my 1 million followers on X can hear it.

    Sounds like Fediverse’s ActivityPub

    • podperson@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      That would mean you would be indefinitely supporting and sending traffic to X. Why not tell your million followers “I will only be posting on Bluesky now - please check out my profile there [link]” and dump X? If you’re worried about your numbers dropping moving to the other platform, then your “followers” probably don’t mean much or weren’t that interested in what you have to say anyway (so what’s the point other than a score)? Maybe I’m just doing the old man shaking his fist at the sky routine.

  • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    20·
    6 months ago

    Technofeudalism

    Nope. We’ve been over this. It’s still just capitalism and regular old fascism and neo-feudalism. Don’t need a new term to try to imply that technology is the cause. Doesn’t matter that the tech industry is involved, it’s still just wealthy people using profitable industry to try to cement power over others.

    • Kairos@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      This isn’t capitalism it’s feudalism and technology is a dependency. You’re still much more correct than that headline.

  • 0x0@programming.devEnglish
    141·
    6 months ago

    To Varoufakis, every time you post on X, formerly Twitter, you’re essentially toiling Elon Musk’s estate like a medieval serf. Musk doesn’t pay you. But your free labor pays him, in a sense, by increasing the value of his company. On X, the more active users there are, the more people can be shown advertising or sold subscriptions.

    The irony being you can buy it on Amazon…

    • tofubl@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      Is that a way of saying you think he’s wrong?

      I thought the book had an interesting core idea, even if his grasp on technology seems rather loose and I really disliked the literary device he used to explain said idea.

      What’s your take on it?

      • mannycalavera@feddit.ukEnglish
        31·
        6 months ago

        Varoufakis likes to position himsetas a sage. Someone that “saw it coming and warned everyone but nobody listened”. He likes to pop back and pretend he had solutions or influence but the world just conspired against him.

        I don’t know if he’s wrong on this one. I do know he often sprays a bunch of doomsayer predictions and only reviews the ones he was vaguely in the same ballpark for. He’s the classic embodiment of the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy and, naturally, a lot of people want to believe what he’s pedaling. If he sells a few books or gets paid to give speeches here and there then so be it. After all… he did warn us.

        • tofubl@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Hm, interesting. I didn’t read it like that, but as an economist trying to make sense of what’s going on and explain it to others. I didn’t question whether the thoughts are original, neither do I know if there are holes in his concepts that I as a non-economist am blind to. My personal opinion, anyway, is that the message is important today (or better yet 15 years ago but nobody would have listened 😉), no matter whether he is primarily motivated by his ego or what.

          Maybe this makes me part of the people he caters to, but that line of thinking doesn’t lead anywhere meaningful anyway, I think.

          I liked the end of the book: A call to action for us to come up with tools and technological solutions for “users” to stand together so we can create resistance against overly powerful cooperations and demand our rights. I don’t think it’s hypocritical for him to ask for this either. We need people to point problems out and problem solvers, both.

          Have you read more of what he wrote or how did you come by that opinion on him? Technofeudalism and a number of interviews leading up to the book release was the first I was exposed to him.

          • mannycalavera@feddit.ukEnglish
            3·
            6 months ago

            Yeah fair enough. I should say I haven’t read his latest. He’s been almost constantly on the European media circuit with hot takes on anything and everything from economics to science to politics to culture since the Greek economic crisis with the EU.

            I used to like him in the beginning but after a while I got the impression he was the guy at the bar with a whisky and cigar in his hand telling the same story to patrons. But, my god, what a story it was!

            • tofubl@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
              2·
              6 months ago

              By god, lemmy is civilised. 😂 I love it.

              I can see what you mean, too, but am still on the liking him side I guess. And anyway, l’art pour l’art and all that, right? 😅