Technocapitalism : the rise of the new robber barons and the fight for the common good / Loretta Napoleoni.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Napoleoni, Loretta, author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Technological innovations--History--21st century.

Technological innovations.

Capitalism--History--21st century.

Capitalism.

Anomy.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

x, 292 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Seven Stories Press, [2024]

Summary:

"At the dawn of the digital revolution, the internet was going to be the great equalizer, a global democratic force. Instead, with the money printed electronically to bail out banks, Wall Street ended up funding a new breed of serial capitalists, the Techtitans, who embraced rapid, transformational change while stripping their workers of rights and enriching themselves beyond anybody's wildest imagination; and the Space Barons, who mine new frontiers for precious resources. Then came the gig-economy, another supposed digital equalizer, where everybody was their own boss, but it was just another illusion. Tech pioneers like Google, Facebook, Apple, Uber, and Microsoft never had any intention of spreading democracy. Those who control and own the technology are the absolute masters. As artificial intelligence enters the labor market, companies like Uber are able to cut labor costs to the barest of minimums, by squeezing workers' privileges and rights. In Techno-Capitalism, Napoleoni describes these phenomena as the genesis of a new paradigm, born in a period of extraordinary change in which the acceleration of transformational change has caused a dizzying, anxiety-induced paralysis from the FTX collapse to AI, private space companies to the war in Ukraine, from inflation to the dirty environmental truth of EV car batteries. Technological transformation is occurring at a speed that is existentially unbearable for most of us. We must fight for our common good to address today's real challenges of global warming and militarism and the soulessness of capitalist endeavor. Napoleoni shows us how"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: life is full of surprises

The cypherpunks

Bitcoin

Crypto world

Non-fungible tokens

Financial meltdown

Modern monetary theory

The rise of the techtitans

The end of the nation state

The video game of finance

Assault on Wall Street

The mythology of carbon credits

The model of infinite economic growth

The space barons

Terraforming

Space economics.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9781644213292

164421329X

OCLC:

1411309994

Publisher Number:

99996442944