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Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

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Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#51

Post by postmortembees »

neovialogistics wrote: post #37

He's arguing that capitalist systems morph over time into feudalistic systems and the argument is pretty persuasive but there's an issue: capitalism initially emerged out of feudalism. The text's theory of history requires a hidden variable that controls the feudalism->capitalism->feudalism process, but no candidate for a hidden variable is suggested by the author. Sure, any reader can think up some candidates for th…

Interestingly it's not the only growth out of Feudalism. Miskin argues, for instance, that France and England had very different post-feudal trajectories, but England's move into Capitalism was so successful in the short term it required France to engage in Capitalism to stay relevant.

England moved to a landlord-rent model for their agrarian society, whereas France moved to a tax on production model for their agrarian society. The distinction there is subtle, but the English model encourages improvidence to ensure you can make the rent, and that improvidence leads to increased output, pressure on workers to move to cities and away from their familial land. The French model didn't put as much pressure on maximizing productivity, and their post feudal agrarian society was perhaps a little slower to take off economically, but wasn't burdened with quite the same social upheaval that capitalism led to in England.

It's a very interesting history, and I do wish we'd been able to see more post-feudal societies develop. I think there's a number of different economic models out there that would be functional. They might not be as economically strong, but they might have different strengths w.r.t. population health, happiness, or sustainability.

Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#52

Post by maerF0x0 »

starbugs wrote: post #22
leptons wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Plenty of people also like the touchscreens or seemingly superflous features There was a recent story about how people do not like the touchscreens and tech in their cars. https://www.theverge.com/23801545/car-infotainment-customer-... Personally I'm not a fan of most of the recent car tech, it's often trying too hard and not making things any easier for people.

I have owned both a shitty beginner car without any extras and two more or less fully equipped ones. I would love a car that does not have a single display and just connects to my phone or pad for setting things up and streaming audio. All controls should be haptic buttons, switches, whatever. Minimal software required to run the car. No internet connection, no subscriptions. The only extras that I would keep are: *…

That's part of why I bought a late CX-5 . While there is a touch display, it can be fully controlled with the physical controls.

Also has all the features you mentioned.

Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#54

Post by WillPostForFood »

_aavaa_ wrote: post #9
whynotmaybe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If their business model needs me to create an account, I won't "steal" their revenue by using archive, I'll just bypass the article entirely.

Same article directly on the author's personal site: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-de...

Awesome how he links it at the bottom of the paywalled article where you can't see it.

Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#55

Post by WillPostForFood »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #39

I still have a belief that capitalism and free markets are superior, but not the way we're doing it now. I'm not trying to no true scotsman here, but a man born in germany to 2 austrian parents and dressed in a kilt is no true scotsman. as i see things there are some major issues are - Removing money from gold standard, allowing power to accrue to those who can control the supply. Instead of competing for what consum…

You are getting downvoted, but the article makes a similar observation.

The first capitalists hated rent. They wanted to replace the “passive income” that landowners got from taxing their serfs’ harvest with active income from enclosing those lands and grazing sheep in order to get wool to feed to the new textile mills. They wanted active income — and lots of it.

Capitalist philosophers railed against rent. The “free market” of Adam Smith wasn’t a market that was free from regulation — it was a market free from rents. The reason Smith railed against monopolists is because he (correctly) understood that once a monopoly emerged, it would become a chokepoint through which a rentier could cream off the profits he considered the capitalist’s due

Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#56

Post by floxy »

rightbyte wrote: post #26
dragontamer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_r5UJrxcck Malibu vs Bel Air crash test. You better believe that modern cars are better, its incredible how _BAD_ cars were before we cared about safety. And that's just safety. Today's cars have better MPG, go faster, have more power, easier to maintain, consistently hit 150,000 miles, etc. etc.

I have to admit cars have gotten better. I wonder why, since pretty much any other machinery have become worse. Monkey wrenches, kitchen aids, washing machines. Even static tools like frying pans, screw drivers. You name it. But not cars.

You can't buy cars at Amazon (?). So there is no race to the bottom trying to compete with counterfeit and/or products made with substandard materials?

Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#57

Post by brewdad »

meheleventyone wrote: post #30
rightbyte wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to admit cars have gotten better. I wonder why, since pretty much any other machinery have become worse. Monkey wrenches, kitchen aids, washing machines. Even static tools like frying pans, screw drivers. You name it. But not cars.

Cars are heavily regulated.

> The car market appears to be as close to perfect competition as we can muster. Theres an enormous amount of big players that all compete and try to outdo one another

> Cars are heavily regulated

I love that both of these statements, while reflecting opposing ends of political philosophy, are entirely true.

Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#58

Post by w4termelon »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #39

I still have a belief that capitalism and free markets are superior, but not the way we're doing it now. I'm not trying to no true scotsman here, but a man born in germany to 2 austrian parents and dressed in a kilt is no true scotsman. as i see things there are some major issues are - Removing money from gold standard, allowing power to accrue to those who can control the supply. Instead of competing for what consum…

Straight to GULAG for wrong opinion.

Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#59

Post by mcpackieh »

neovialogistics wrote: post #37

He's arguing that capitalist systems morph over time into feudalistic systems and the argument is pretty persuasive but there's an issue: capitalism initially emerged out of feudalism. The text's theory of history requires a hidden variable that controls the feudalism->capitalism->feudalism process, but no candidate for a hidden variable is suggested by the author. Sure, any reader can think up some candidates for th…

> The text's theory of history requires a hidden variable that controls the feudalism->capitalism->feudalism process

During the industrial and chemical revolutions, the technology to feed a large population outpaced the technology to control large populations. Feudalism fell to capitalism because society became too large to be effectively ordered by feudal lords. But this is now changing thanks to the information technology revolution. With information technology, we are developing a new means of feudalism that scales to billions of people.

Re: Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow

#60

Post by maerF0x0 »

w4termelon wrote: post #58
maerF0x0 wrote: post #39

I still have a belief that capitalism and free markets are superior, but not the way we're doing it now. I'm not trying to no true scotsman here, but a man born in germany to 2 austrian parents and dressed in a kilt is no true scotsman. as i see things there are some major issues are - Removing money from gold standard, allowing power to accrue to those who can control the supply. Instead of competing for what consum…

Straight to GULAG for wrong opinion.

haha, whelp. I sometimes can tell what posts are going to be outside the Overton window, but my nature compels me to say them anyways because I believe they're true.
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