Alexander Bard on Tue, 15 Apr 2014 13:29:34 +0200 (CEST)


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Re: <nettime> Will your insurance company subsidize your quantified self?


And still, while this analysis is correct it is also merely half-right.
What it is not taking into perspective is the fact that the Internet itself
fosters a new parallel class system of a netocracy versus a consumtariat.
But that is of course because the members of Nettime themselves are all
netocrats and therefore rather blind to this digital division. Power always
blinds us, especially of course our very own power.
For example, you can no longer ignore the fact that there is an enormous
difference in power between somebody with 400,000 Twitter followers and
those with merely 10.
Not that the division between a bourgeosie (those with money) and workers
(those without) in a Marxist sense no longer exists, just that the new
division in attention arther than capital complicates things further.
Unless Nettime begins to dig into this complexity of power, the themes of
this forum will look rater banal in hindsight. Don't you agree? I'm sure
Karl Marx himself would have. Just take Google, who by focusing on
attention maximization (who is top if you google "search engine" if not
Google themselves?) and ignoring mioneymaking in strategy is the fastest
growing financial behemoth ever, merely as an ironic side-effect.
Power is no longer just Fortune 400. It is just as much a sociogram as an
income or wealth distribution. And will increasingly be so.
I'm glad people like Slavoj Zizek are finally understanding this too.
Best intentions
Alexander


2014-04-15 1:39 GMT+02:00 <dan@geer.org>:

>  | As Enzensberger's "Rules for the Digital World" suggest - somewhat
>  | unintentionally -, freedom of electronic devices will be a privilege
>  | of the wealthy. In the near future, to be upper class will no longer
>  | mean that you carry the latest electronic gadget, but that you can
>  | afford the luxury surcharge for a life without tracking devices.
>
> Absolutely right.  When was the last time any member of the
> Fortune 400 list, or Obama for that matter, carried cash or keys?
 <...>


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