Metastable Shifts in Cognitive Capitalism
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The document discusses metastable shifts in capitalism from a system based on surplus to one based on debt, and from localized industrial labor to distributed cognitive labor. This shift from surplus to debt and localized work to cognitive labor is having profound effects on cultures and individuals. Capitalism can be likened to a battery that was historically powered by localized industrial labor but is increasingly powered by distributed cognitive labor. The mining of cognition from individuals and groups parallels the historical mining of natural resources, producing both positive and negative externalities. Understanding these changes requires grounding the abstract concepts in personal feelings through reflective and recursive processes.
Metastable Shifts in Cognitive Capitalism
- 1. Metastable Shifts in (Cognitive) Capitalism David J. Walczyk ? David Walczyk
- 2. Capitalism is …! a metastable system ! of beliefs and related actions.! ! Metastable means a system that is able to remain stable during periods of instability. ? David Walczyk
- 3. The metastability of capitalism is shifting (overheating)… from a system based on Surplus ! ! to a system based on Debt! ! Debt is promised libido (energy). It is future oriented - an owed! ! Surplus is excess libido (energy). It is in potentia - an owned ? David Walczyk
- 4. Capitalism can be likened to a battery. A battery is powered by the energy it stores. ! Historically… The capitalist battery was primarily powered by ! localized industrial labor! ! Nowadays it’s increasingly powered by… ! distributed cognitive labor ? David Walczyk
- 5. Since the world is, or is in the process of becoming, a ‘globalized capitalist economy’ these two shifts in political economy… ! from surplus to debt! and from localized industrial labor to distributed cognitive labor! ! …are having profound effects on cultures and the individuals within them. ? David Walczyk
- 6. For example…! There’s a good chance that your (grand)parents experienced… ! A more localized industry with surplus ! while you experience… ! A more distributed cognition with debt.! ! How might this cultural shift affect the ! meaning of “The American Dream”? ? David Walczyk
- 7. Yet…! ! While the future isn’t what it used to be, old tools can be used for new times. ! Remember that capitalism is metastable. ? David Walczyk
- 8. Take mining.! ! Historically the process of mining has been applied to natural resources drawn from the earth ! nowadays the process of mining has been applied to cognition drawn from people.! ! (of course this has always occurred but not anywhere near to the extent to which it does contemporarily) ? David Walczyk
- 9. The mining of cognition is the mining of ‘positive externalities’ (so-called ‘knowledge’) extracted formally and informally from individuals, groups, and entire cultures. ? David Walczyk
- 10. Like the mining of natural resources the mining of cognition also has ‘negative externalities.’ ! These are often ignored by those seemingly more interested in the value of the positive externalities. ! Negative externalities include… stress, anxiety, depression, substance addiction, cultural homogenization, spectacle, etc… ? David Walczyk
- 11. Like the mining of natural resources…! ! Mining cognition includes the mining of what is already known and what is not yet known ! codi?ed ‘knowledge’ (already known) ! and noncodi?ed ‘knowledge’ (not yet known) ? David Walczyk
- 12. The mining of codi?ed knowledge is achieved through a process likened to pattern recognition and its application to a real or created need by way of its concretization (in the form of products and services). ? David Walczyk
- 13. The mining of noncod?ed knowledge is achieved through a process of individual and collective so-called ‘creativity’ and its re?nement into codi?ed knowledge ! where it can be used immediately or stored. ? David Walczyk
- 14. That said…! ! As much as we want to intellectually understand the abstraction we call the ‘political economy of new media’ we also want to grasp what it means to us individually and collectively. ! We need to ground it in feeling. ? David Walczyk
- 15. This grounding… ! is a re?ective and recursive process that, ironically perhaps, requires a high degree of cognitive ?exibility within a capitalistic system that, at times, may seem to discourage it. ? David Walczyk
- 16. This grounding process is re?ective because it requires an acute willingness and ability to take what we know and learn, turn inward with it, process it, ! and then… assign some sort of value to the outcome. ? David Walczyk
- 17. This grounding process is recursive because it requires an acute willingness and ability to allow the outcomes of re?ection to in?uence subsequent thoughts and actions ! and then ! for these re?ned thoughts and action to participate in the next iteration of the re?ective process. ? David Walczyk
- 18. A way to engage with this grounding process would be to use, and extend, the logic of cognitive capitalism itself. ? David Walczyk
- 19. To ask… What are the positive and negative ‘externalities’ of my cognitive labor? ! And then, if you’re up to it, seek even more ground…! ! How do these ‘externalities’ affect my life? Whom do these ‘externalities’ bene?t? Whom do these ‘externalities’ impair? The cost of this process is, of course, naivety. ! The gain, perhaps, an increase in consciousness. ? David Walczyk
- 20. So for us…! The political economy of new media is about: (1) the metastable shifting of capitalism (2) the rise and stabilization of cognitive capitalism (3) ‘new media’ as the enablers of, and now contributors to, (1) and (2) (4) The personal and collective effects of (1) - (3) ? David Walczyk