Metastable Shifts in (Cognitive) Capitalism

David J. Walczyk

© David Walczyk

Capitalism is …!a metastable system !

of beliefs and related actions.!!

Metastable means a system that is able to remain stable during periods of instability.

© David Walczyk

The metastability of capitalism is shifting (overheating)…

from a system based on

Surplus !!

to a system based on Debt!

!Debt is promised libido (energy). It is future oriented - an owed!

!Surplus is excess libido (energy).

It is in potentia - an owned

© David Walczyk

Capitalism can be likened to a battery. A battery is powered by the energy it stores.

!Historically…

The capitalist battery was primarily powered by !

localized industrial labor!!

Nowadays it’s increasingly powered by… !

distributed cognitive labor

© David Walczyk

Since the world is, or is in the process of becoming, a ‘globalized capitalist economy’

these two shifts in political economy… !

from surplus to debt!

and from localized industrial labor to distributed cognitive labor!

!…are having profound effects on

cultures and the individuals within them.

© David Walczyk

For example…!There’s a good chance that your (grand)parents experienced…

!A more localized industry with surplus

!while you experience…

!A more distributed cognition with debt.!

!How might this cultural shift affect the !meaning of “The American Dream”?

© David Walczyk

Yet…!!

While the future isn’t what it used to be, old tools can be used for new times.

!Remember that capitalism is metastable.

© David Walczyk

Take mining.!!

Historically the process of mining has been applied to natural resources drawn from the earth

!nowadays the process of mining has been applied to

cognition drawn from people.!!

(of course this has always occurred but not anywhere near to the extent to which it does contemporarily)

© David Walczyk

The mining of cognition is the mining of ‘positive externalities’ (so-called ‘knowledge’)

extracted formally and informally

from individuals, groups, and entire cultures.

© David Walczyk

Like the mining of natural resources the mining of cognition also has ‘negative externalities.’

!These are often ignored

by those seemingly more interested in the value of the positive externalities.

!Negative externalities include…

stress, anxiety, depression, substance addiction, cultural homogenization, spectacle,

etc…

© David Walczyk

Like the mining of natural resources…! !

Mining cognition includes the mining of what is already known and what is not yet known

!codified ‘knowledge’ (already known)

!and

noncodified ‘knowledge’ (not yet known)

© David Walczyk

The mining of codified knowledge is achieved through a process likened to

pattern recognition and its

application to a real or created need by way of its

concretization (in the form of products and services).

© David Walczyk

The mining of noncodfied knowledge is achieved through a process of

individual and collective so-called ‘creativity’ and its

refinement into codified knowledge !where it can be used immediately or stored.

© David Walczyk

That said…!!

As much as we want to intellectually understand the abstraction we call the ‘political economy of new media’

we also want to grasp what it means to us individually and collectively.

!We need to ground it in feeling.

© David Walczyk

This grounding… !

is a reflective and recursive process that, ironically perhaps,

requires a high degree of cognitive flexibility within a capitalistic system that,

at times, may seem to discourage it.

© David Walczyk

This grounding process is reflective

because it requires an acute willingness and ability to take what we

know and learn, turn inward with it,

process it, !

and then…

assign some sort of value to the outcome.

© David Walczyk

This grounding process is recursive

because it requires an acute willingness and ability to allow the outcomes of reflection to influence

subsequent thoughts and actions !

and then !

for these refined thoughts and action to participate in the next iteration of the reflective process.

© David Walczyk

A way to engage with this grounding process would be to use, and extend, the logic of cognitive capitalism itself.

© David Walczyk

To ask… What are the positive and negative ‘externalities’ of my cognitive labor?

!And then, if you’re up to it, seek even more ground…!

!How do these ‘externalities’ affect my life?

Whom do these ‘externalities’ benefit? Whom do these ‘externalities’ impair?

The cost of this process is, of course, naivety. !

The gain, perhaps, an increase in consciousness.

© David Walczyk

So for us…!The political economy of new media is about:

(1) the metastable shifting of capitalism (2) the rise and stabilization of cognitive capitalism

(3) ‘new media’ as the enablers of, and now contributors to, (1) and (2) (4) The personal and collective effects of (1) - (3)

© David Walczyk

END.

© David Walczyk