Sound Research WIKINDX

p. 52  

"Neither new nor liberal, neoliberalism was an uninteresting hodgepodge of older political philosophies. As a piece of theory, it had as much to do with really-existing capitalism as Marxism had to do with really-existing communism: nothing! Nevertheless, neoliberalism delivered the necessary ideological veneer to legitimise the assault on organised labour and to promote the socalled ‘deregulation’ that let Wall Street rip. Along with it came the revival of economic theories that humanity had, rightly, ditched during the Great Depression – theories artfully assuming that which they claimed to explain, such as the grand lie that deregulated financial markets know best."

  Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  (5/10/26, 12:59 AM)

Keywords:   Artificial Intelligence, Neoliberalism

pp. 67–68  

The birth of what he calls cloud capital came about  through "first, the epic ransacking of the internet commons, made possible by politicians, and then a sequence of spectacular technological inventions – from Sergey Brin’s search engine to the dazzling array of today’s AI applications. [Comparing this change to the Enclosures of C19^th Britain] each required a comprehensive plunder of a commons, a complicit political class, and only then a marvellous technological breakthrough. That’s how the original Age of Capital transpired. And that’s how the Age of Cloud Capital is now dawning."

  Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  (5/10/26, 8:43 AM)

Keywords:   Artificial Intelligence, Neoliberalism, Technofeudalism

p. 78  

"Alexa is no serf. It is, rather, a piece of cloud-based command capital which is turning you into a serf, with your aid and by means of your own unpaid labour, in order to further enrich its owners."

  Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  (5/10/26, 9:00 AM)

Keywords:   Artificial Intelligence, Neoliberalism, Technofeudalism

pp. 79–80  

"Here is a glimpse of what makes cloud capital so fundamentally new, different and scary: capital has hitherto been reproduced within some labour market – within the factory, the office, the warehouse. Aided by machines, it was waged workers who produced the stuff that was sold to generate profits, which in turn financed their wages and the production of more machines – that’s how capital accumulated and reproduced. Cloud capital, in contrast, can reproduce itself in ways that involve no waged labour. How? By commanding almost the whole of humanity to chip in to its reproduction – for free!"

  Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  (5/10/26, 9:02 AM)

Keywords:   Artificial Intelligence, Neoliberalism, Technofeudalism

p. 88  

"It took mind-bending scientific breakthroughs, fantastical-sounding neural networks and imagination-defying AI programs to accomplish what? To turn workers toiling in warehouses, driving cabs and delivering food into cloud proles. To create a world where markets are increasingly replaced by cloud fiefs. To force businesses into the role of vassals. And to turn all of us into cloud serfs, glued to our smartphones and tablets, eagerly producing the cloud capital that keeps our new overlords on cloud nine."

  Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  (5/10/26, 9:16 AM)

Keywords:   Artificial Intelligence, Neoliberalism, Technofeudalism

p. 97  

"In the fifteen years since capitalism’s near-death experience, central bankers have been printing monies and channelling them to the financiers, entirely of their own accord. In their minds, they have been saving capitalism. In reality, they have been upending it by helping to finance the emergence of cloud capital. But that’s how history arrives: on the coat-tails of unintended consequences."

  Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  (5/11/26, 1:30 AM)

Keywords:   Artificial Intelligence, Neoliberalism, Technofeudalism