podinski on Fri, 28 Oct 2022 13:46:37 +0200 (CEST)


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Re: <nettime> Technopolitics of the future


Hi all,

Re: Technopolitics of the future

(  in the "possible follow-ups" category ... haha ! )

thx for the comments...

and just to clarify...

The XLterrestrials' analysis of *Guineapigdom* is an attempt to analyze ALL technological environments in the throes and whims and viciousness and machinations of predatory corporate krapitalism. Perhaps we can call it *The Big Technosphere*, as the idiotic + elitist escapist route, which is almost sure to collapse in on itself, b/c it has no real plan for dealing with the ecological crises. And much less all the ethical crises which comes along with them. A tunnel to nowhere, a distraction... like a Mars Tourism Industry.

There are absolutely important and urgent things to address in terms of pandemic politics, Big Pharma and the directions of product-oriented health industries, and very much look forward to the Covid Reader which will come out of the Utrecht work. And others' work on these topics. And mp's questions also raise some huge unavoidable questions !

But for us, we are currently working on a new edition of our CiTiZEN KiNO on a theme of "organisms vs. automatons - revisited"...  to take a step back and try and look at the bigger picture of our relationships to technology. Sociological, anthropological views and perhaps with a bit of art + social sci-fi elements... in the hopes that we can have some import on public understanding and possible responses to precisely a "technopolitics" and "anthropocene" that is brought up here in this thread... But which in our view has some serious omissions.

For us, Anthropocene narratives very much relate to a large part of the Guineapigdom. A major factor in "The Great Social Adjustment" ( taking a term from the anti-globalization movements ) behavioral patterns and agendas, missteps and/or horrific acts with criminal + genocidal implications. 

Romain Felli's work points out ...

>How capitalism wants us to adapt to climate change rather than stop it

The Great Adaptation ( 2021 ) tells the story of how scientists, governments and corporations have tried to deal with the challenge that climate change poses to capitalism by promoting adaptation to its consequences, rather than combating its causes. Since the 1970s, neoliberal economists and ideologues have used climate change as an argument for creating more “flexibility” in society, for promoting more market-based solutions to environmental and social questions. This book unveils the political economy of this potent movement, showing how some powerful actors are thriving in the face of dangerous climate change and even making a profit out of it. <

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3797-the-great-adaptation

...

Thus Anthropocene narratives could be said to have switched from WARNINGS (Crutzen) to the new irreversible + Inevitable TECHNOSPHERE DESTINY of MANkind, which should be translated to The Inhuman Unkind... and/or...  perpetrators of mass extinction.

Or the Anthrop directions were actually aligned with industry agendas from the very beginning !  ( "Welcome to the Anthropocene" was our first media encounter w/ the theme in c. 2012?, a slick NGO clip from Planet Under Pressure, which was essentially terrible analysis attributing it all to WE HUMANS, rather than malignant industries and treacherous operating systems. )

...

Institutionally-funded conferences of the Anthrop topics rarely keep pace with these kinds of ( outsider ) critical investigations.

Another book we picked up in our research for this project:

Ending the Anthropocene - Essays on Activism in the age of collapse

from Lieven De Cautier

...

Won't have time atm to absorb or reflect on Brian's latest addition to the conversation. Sure there's plenty of fascinating + important things in that.

...

all the best,

podinski


p.s. a small cinematic anecdotal addendum....

one of the films we use in our latest C-KINO is Boots Riley's SURREALIST BLACK COMEDY ... which was pre-pandemic... from 2018.

great art has a way of being way ahead of the actual technodystopias on the ground ! :)

plot excerpt:

Cassius "Cash" Green is invited to a party with ( Silicon-Valley-esque ) WorryFree CEO Steve Lift, where he is goaded into rapping for the predominantly white guests. In a private meeting, Lift offers Cash a powdered substance which Cash snorts, believing it is cocaine. Looking for the bathroom, Cash discovers ( a backroom ) where shackled half-horse, half-human hybrids beg him for help. Lift explains that WorryFree plans to make their workers stronger, more obedient, and thus more profitable by transforming them into hybrid "Equisapiens" through snorting a gene-modifying powder.


 

On 25/10/22 12:00, nettime-l-request@mail.kein.org wrote:
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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Technopolitics of the future (Jos? Mar?a Mateos)
   2. Re: Technopolitics of the future (Hoofd, I.M. (Ingrid))


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2022 10:12:53 -0400
From: Jos? Mar?a Mateos <chema@rinzewind.org>
To: nettime-l@mail.kein.org
Subject: Re: <nettime> Technopolitics of the future
Message-ID: Y1adZXowhkFxG1IS@rinzewind.org"><Y1adZXowhkFxG1IS@rinzewind.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed

On Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 11:00:44AM +0200, Felix Stalder wrote:
apps etc are more or less the same than five years ago. In response, 
lots of VC-capital is funding blockchain technologies, which, so far, 
have proven completely useless. A real dead-end.
They're very good for scamming people, though. Someone must have though 
"Ponzi schemes are really ripe for disruption", and here we are. It 
sounds really sophisticated, and no one wants to say that it's difficult 
to understand because they don't want to appear stupid. Cue all the 
articles in the mainstream press peddling this nonsense. It can't go to 
0 quick enough.

Cheers,

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