Cloud empires : how digital platforms are overtaking the state and how we can regain control / Vili Lehdonvirta.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lehdonvirta, Vili, author.

Series:

The MIT Press

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Central planning.

Cyberspace--Economic aspects.

Cyberspace.

Cyberspace--Social aspects.

Digital media.

Power (Social sciences).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (291 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2022]

Summary:

"Companies like Amazon, Upwork, Apple's App Store, and Ebay are shaping the world and the prospects of millions of people who depend on them for their livelihoods. This book explores the implications of this power and shows how it compares with traditional statecraft"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

1. Introduction

Three Thousand Years of History in Thirty Years

The Ancient Problem

Inspiration from Our Ancestors

How to Read This Book

Part I: Economic Institutions

2. Reciprocity: The Golden Rule in Cyberspace

Digital Cowboy

A Declaration of Independence

The Problem of Exchange

Evolution of Cooperation

Trouble at the Electronic Market

A Global Market for Labor?

Eternal September

Bodily Needs

3. From Reputation To Regulation: The Birth of a Giant

Echobay​.com

Five out of Five

Bags and Bags of Envelopes

Blackmail

Dead People Don't Write Reviews

A Universe of Rules

4. The Privacy Dilemma: Maintaining Order In a Masquerade

Mask of Dread Pirate Roberts

A Most Brazen Attempt

Holiday Surprise

Unmasked

The Privacy Dilemma

Your Virtual Passport

5. Death Of Distance, Resurrection Of Borders: Labor Markets in Cyberspace

The Tyranny of Distance

"You May Say You Attended Harvard . . ."

Same Work, Different Pay

Globalization in Cyberspace

The Edges of Clouds

6. Centrally Planned Free Markets: Programming a Soviet Union 2.0?

Eliminating Human Imperfections

A "Smarter" Marketplace

The Algorithm Becomes the Market

The Perfect Market

Badges and Nudges

Sleepwalking into Soviet Union 2.0

Optimal to Whom?

Part II: Political Institutions

7. Network Effect: From Digital Revolutionary to Everything Emperor

Dashed Ambitions

Liftoff

A Digital Revolution

"Egalitarian in the Best Sense"

"Amazon Has Crushed Another Little Guy"

El Comandante

8. Cryptocracy: The Quest To Replace Politics with Technology

Problem of Trust

Thwarting the Sybil Attack

The Most Dangerous Project

A Bug in the Machine

Software Update

Competing Interests

A Broken Market for Rules

Trusted Central Parties.

Rise of Cryptocracy

9. Collective Action I: Workers of the Internet, Unite?

Artificial Artificial Intelligence

Turker Nation

Adult Content

"Not Enough for Anyone in Government to Care"

Digital Workers of the World

The Free-Rider Problem

"How Dare You Take from the Little Guys?"

Advent of Platform Politics

10. Collective Action II: Rise of a Digital Middle Class

Customers in over Twenty Countries

David versus Goliath

"I'm Going to Lose my Company"

"Team Up to Make Our Voices Louder"

Rise of a Digital Middle Class

Part III: Social Institutions

11. The Digital Safety Net: Social Protection and Education in a Platform Economy

Technological Unemployment

Certified by Google

Fraying Welfare State

Enter the Digital Safety Net

Engaging the Audience

Care by Amazon

People versus Profits

12. Conclusions

Understanding the Great Betrayal

Why Platforms Are Overtaking the State

States without Estates

Building a Digital Single Market

Deposing Digital Despots

A Failing Market for Rules

Essential Infrastructure versus Creative Anarchy

Platform Nationalism or Platform Cooperativism?

A Bourgeois Revolution

Writing a Digital Constitution

What We Owe the Founders

Acknowledgments

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Index.

Notes:

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-262-37109-X

OCLC:

1333708318