Technofeudalism
About the book
Book author: Yanis Varoufakis
Yanis takes us through his take on the modern economy: technofeudalism.
In short, he argues that capitalism has been killed by itself and replaced by a monster: the techno feudal society. We are no longer operating in free markets; we are operating in cloud fiefdoms. We are “cloud serfs” to our “cloud lords”, Bezos, Zuck and the like. It’s a riveting book for sure, and I think he is completely right.
Yanis is quite left-aligned. He is openly transparent about that, but nonetheless the message in the book isn’t exactly hyper-objective at all times. Most of the political opinion is optional and in the ending chapter. What I’d also like to add is that he is a pretty… polarising figure, especially from his time as the Minister of Finance in Greece. Either way, the book is a good read.
Reflection and takeaways
Since 2020, I have sensed a shift in our digital landscapes. Yanis thankfully articulated much of it for me.
Let’s set the stage by explaining the jist of it:
If we were walking together in a city, we would be subject to the open market. We would see the same store windows, the same items and the same stores. Transparent and open to all. You’re free to buy something if you want, at the right price. That’s capitalism.
When you visit Amazon, you actually exit capitalism. You see a different Amazon than I, with different prices. Somehow, it’s all branded as “hypermodern capitalism”. But that’s not capitalism. It’s something else.
These markets certainly have “fief”-y characteristics: As a business owner, you pay cloud rent to be listed as a cloud vendor in the cloud fief, while at the same you as a customer pay cloud tax in the form of a service fee to the cloud lord that “faciliated your purchase”. Maybe the cloud lord also took out a hidden middleman fee. The cloud lord squeezes profit from both the customer and company. And the worst part? These “markets” operate without borders and do it 24⁄7. There are many kinds of these double-sided “markets” today: Uber, Foodora, AirBnB et cetera.
On content platforms (“fiefs”) like YouTube, Instagram or Reddit, we are effectively cloud serfs: we create the content that the cloud lords monitize by data mining us. Strange. At the same time, life outside the cloud fiefdoms is really hard because everyone spends their time and attention on these platforms. What’s more is that they exist without borders and operate 24⁄7. Something else that has happened is that we trained the algorithms to predict our desires so well, that they turned on us. Now they effectively train us by informing us or feeding us with what we would or should like. This is the power every marketer would like to have, and they have it. They can nudge our feeds however they want. We wouldn’t know.
And what is the result of this? For one thing, during the pandemic when the money printers went BRRRR!!! almost all this capital eventually ended up in cloud capital hands. You couldn’t visit physical stores or do anything outside, so everyone entered the digital fiefs. That’s a big reason why the cloud business are the top of S&P500 and have had monster gains.
Today (2024) - have you ever noticed how your online experiences are tailored to manipulate your desires? I met someone at a social event a couple of weeks ago who told me her sister had quit school and spends about 11 hours per day on TikTok. She basically lives in there, and creates and consumes content. Tragic. Shows the addictive power of these algorithms. This is the reality of the digital fiefdom experience. I’m sure her life is really profitable for TikTok.
I bet she’s not the only one. Technofeudalism has smashed the veil between refuge from markets (usually when you got home, you were home, but now you are on your phone); and one such market is the market of “self-discovery”. You need an identity online today, or you basically don’t exist. But what happens then is: you have to think before you post about “who could read this?” What does that entail? Well, that causes you to curate what you broadcast – so what you broadcast the best version of your identity. You should “be yourself!” – but at the same time noone is themselves. You can see this effect on Instagram quite clearly. Nobody posts their “real” authentic day when they binge series in sweatpants – they post their vacation and food pictures.
I also wonder if we can unf*ck this. Let’s say you have a cloud vassal in the fief. A company that becomes big, or a large content creator that is complaining about revenue. The second the lord thinks the vassal is a threat, the lord exiles the vassal… and exile usually means death.
I just can’t shake the fork I see between two futures. Yanis has a nice analogy: Do we have a future resembling Star Trek, where machines help us improve and lead happy lives – or the dystopian The Matrix where we exist to power the machines and it’s data mining engine? What future do you want?
Why did I pick it
I just knew I had to read it based on the title.
Verdict
4.0/5. It was good, but a little long. I could have done with a little less political message, but then again, it’s never bad to expose yourself to views you don’t necessarily hold yourself, because there might be something there.