Hi all,

I had someone on a tech subreddit ask me for a good starting point on anticapitalist theory. Do you have recommendations for anticapitalist theory that is both basic and specifically relevant for the tech industry?

Thanks.

  • Budwig_v_1337hoven [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    The People's Republic of Walmart by Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski is about how the most efficient economies today are largely planned by Neural Nets and about liberating 'The Algorithm'. Pretty accessible read and probably a good start.

    Digital Socialism by Evgeny Morozov; goes quite a bit into economics and the calculation debate itself, pretty in-depth; dunks on Hayek occasionally. Probably not a good 'first theory read' but something for later.

    Designing Freedom by Stafford Beer - great intro to Beer's work and his flavour of system philosophy in particular. The dude designed Cybersyn for Allende, basically an experimental planned economy in the 70s. The book is based on a lecture series and very accessible - It's radical and it's short and it's in easy language and it's free. If you don't feel like reading People's Republic of Walmart I'd say start here.

    The Cybernetic Brain - Sketches of Another Future by Andrew Pickering is an in-depth work which goes into early cybernetic developments, Beer's Cybersyn and the early ontological shift within Cybernetics. (US/USSR control systems vs. Beer's controlled systems, essentially) More of a history thing than a theory thing tho.

    Also, check out General Intellect Unit, a good podcast on cybernetic marxism, which I have all these texts from.