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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

#71

Post by Nezteb »

fefe23 wrote: post #38

> To make Medium work, we log user data. By using Medium, you agree to our Privacy Policy, including cookie policy. > Read the full story with a free account. Please don't link to Medium when you can link to, in this case, Pluralistic. https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-de... Medium.com has been thoroughly enshittified :)

For any hosted Medium blog, you can also replace `medium.com` with `scribe.rip`, in this case: https://doctorow.scribe.rip/autoenshittification-cb851c2574f...

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

#72

Post by uxp100 »

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.

I mean, modern washing machines use much less water and electricity, and leave the clothes less wet so the dryer has less to do. I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were less damaging to clothes as well.

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

#74

Post by topaz0 »

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…

Capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. "the invisible hand" sounds good and all, but the problem is that if the owners of capital control the profits produced by the mobilization of capital, then money and power will inevitably become concentrated enough that those capitalists both benefit from and become capable of restricting market freedom. The idea that free markets are a stable state of affairs is a faulty assumption.

[edit to note: this is only one of the many internal contradictions of capitalism, but the most relevant to your argument imo]

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

#75

Post by m463 »

fefe23 wrote: post #38

> To make Medium work, we log user data. By using Medium, you agree to our Privacy Policy, including cookie policy. > Read the full story with a free account. Please don't link to Medium when you can link to, in this case, Pluralistic. https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-de... Medium.com has been thoroughly enshittified :)

or this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36854746

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

#76

Post by runesofdoom »

jmclnx wrote: post #7

>Yanis Varoufakis proposes that capitalism has died — but it wasn’t replaced by socialism. Rather, capitalism has given way to feudalism: This to me is what is really happening. A good symbol of this is income inequality and to a lesser extent, no real action on climate change. Eventually, the "lords" will be in their castles were we most people bake. The "knights" could be the tech people.

No! *The "tech people" are not knights and never will be. The "knights" are upper management. The lords are the centimillionaires and up. The rest of us are slaves, peasants, maybe monks if we're "lucky".

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

#77

Post by m463 »

pjmorris wrote: post #42
xeromal wrote: post #40

Enshittification seems to be growing in populator as a word to describe things.

I prefer 'crapification' (h/t 'Naked Capitalism') for its relative cleanliness and brevity.

I don't, however I do like the word "craptacular" as a descriptive term. :)

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

#78

Post by fnimick »

danaris wrote: post #43
carom wrote: post #17

>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 I think the customer has just changed. Consumers don't have money anymore. Businesses do. Maybe said a different way, for the highest margin products you are targeting businesses. A consumer spending 100k…

> I think the customer has just changed. Consumers don't have money anymore. Businesses do. ...You...recognize that's not a sustainable state of affairs, right? Ultimately, if consumers don't have money, the economy will start to collapse. The upper echelons can feed on each other for a while, but you need an economic base to support the whole edifice. Plus, if "consumers" are unable to get what they need for surviva…

Which is why I expect a basic income to come before it gets to that point. Not enough for anyone to ever save or invest in themselves, just enough money handed out from the government to be sucked right back up into the rent-seeking money machine.

> Plus, if "consumers" are unable to get what they need for survival and thriving for long enough, they're going to decide (correctly) that someone has taken it from them, and take steps to get it back by whatever means necessary.

They'd better do it fast before rich people figure out that robot dogs with lethal weapons and AI vision are a great replacement for human guards that might have the downside of having any empathy. As soon as defense of property rights is fully automated, revolution is impossible.

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

#79

Post by krunck »

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…

Same variable that controls the democrats_in_power->republicans_in_power->democrats_in_power cycle: the cyclic nature of complex systems created out of human society. Whats important is not what controls the cycle, but that the only two options - given to us by human nature - seem to be capitalism and feudalism. Humans need to evolve a bit more before any other options are unlocked.

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

#80

Post by m463 »

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.

I think much of everything else has been ruthlessly optimized for volume + price/profit, so the minimum viable product rises to the top.
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