Re: <nettime> social media critique: next steps?

[Sean Cubitt <s.cubitt@gold.ac.uk>]

that should of course have read:

the ruling algorithms are in every epoch the algorithms of the ruling class

From The German Ideology to German Media Theory (and you’re right Patrice, via Therborn . .  and Lefebvre and Stuart hall)

have algorithms taken over the role of ideology? Clearer if posed in Foucauldian power-knowledge-institution terms of discourse: has the construction of truth passed over to algorithms, whose operation favours a class that owns the means of their distribution?

subordinate question: is this the work of a distinct class that owns the means of production, or is distribution now more significant in the age of financialisation? Or, have the algoithms extended the work of autonomisation Marx saw happening in the factory system,  from purely productive to reproductive sectors, no longer therefore under the control of capitalists but rewarding them with obscene bonuses as a form of benign parasite that helps them survive and grow - capitalists as symbionts, the gut flora of algorithmic capital. 

If any of these hypotheses are true, the forms of struggle against them take very different shapes. 

s

> On 16 Jan 2018, at 12:20, Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl> wrote:
> 
> 
> Sounds like "What Does The Ruling Class Do When It Rules"
> 
> https://www.versobooks.com/books/292-what-does-the-ruling-class-do-when-it-rules
> 
> Ciaoui, p+7D!
> 
> 
> On 2018-01-16 12:27, Sean Cubitt wrote:
>> The algorithms of the ruling class are in every epoch the algorithms
>> of the ruling class
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:16:59 +0100
>>> From: Florian Cramer <flrncrmr@gmail.com>
>>> Cc: Nettime <nettime-l@kein.org>
>>> Subject: Re: <nettime> social media critique: next steps?
>>> Message-ID:
>>> <CADCyihTuCJWc5ed0DcvFxZV5AmpQfFK5V03Tt1t=PHj8vbYUKw@mail.gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>> <snip>
>>> It means that no Chinese "social credit" algorithm is necessary to
>>> discourage social engagement or political resistance. It is not even
>>> a
>>> question of "better" algorithms - whether "better" algorithmic
>>> governance
>>> within existing social networks or through the creation of
>>> "different"/alternative social networks -, since the issue will
>>> remain,
>>> being one of an 'apparatus' or an 'actor network' transcending
>>> binary
>>> distinctions of machinic and human agency. (The question whether a
>>> troll is
>>> a human or a bot, isn't very relevant.)
>>> Articulation of positions [including artist's positions outside
>>> self-chosen
>>> safe spaces] is rapidly becoming a privilege of those who can afford
>>> their
>>> defense.
>>> -F
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