<nettime> Decisionism and its discontents (was: ... well, Decisionism, etc. ; -)

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Hi,

Greetz from Izola/ Isola d'Istria (.si)

Re (Morlock E.)
:
> I would like to push forward this idea: we will develope to be an
> automaton-society. Mashinery will do a more and more growing part of
> everything that has to be done to create good and sustainable living
> conditions for everyone.

This seems to be the case - human work is getting redundant (even today 
only, 10-15% need to work to supply everything, from machines to 
government and prostitution.)

Customization of production may increase the demand but is not likely to 
create jobs. That dream went away with "Internet will create jobs" meme 
- it's still the machines doing the work.

When most of the population has no 'work' to offer for exchange for 
machine-produced goods (food, water, medical assistance), several 
outcomes come to mind, sorted by decreasing probability:

- Excess 99% of population is eliminated, the rest live in some kind of 
pastoral libertarian clan-based paradise serviced by autonomous 
machines. This is where things seem to be pushed to by the top 0.00001% 
(brief nuclear war totally makes sense, they already have shelters and 
sex slaves). They are waiting for the fully autonomous machines so they 
can get rid of tech workers.

...................

Basically the Peter Thiel dystopia described in The Guardian. Immo, the 
by far most probable probability (!).

There was a flaw in the PT reasoning (as per the Guardian): among the 
useless classes (blacks, immigrants etc.) there is also the ca 30% 
useless 'white trash', but that's precisely the electorate the Donald (& 
his pal PT) needs to achieve disruptive 'less democracy'. So what to do 
with them once the election are won? they remain useless. Kill 'm all? 
(Janos's interpretation of PT)

BTW the elimination scenario was sortof 'predicted' in an early WIRED 
article (in its 'Long Boom' epoch) when a "6 (or 8?) Circles' movement 
uprising of mass disemfrenchizeds was hypothised, alas to be nuked out 
of existence for total bliss finally to take hold for good for the 
deserving.
(can any one track back this article, and esp that book for me?)
.....................

- Some yet unknown political force enforces model for societal 
participation that is not work-based. On the optimistic side it's basic 
income or similar, on the dark side it's jails & wildlife preserves. 
What is troubling is that most brainpower today is wasted on doomed 
attempts to create 'demand', so it's not clear where this option can 
come from. As Zizek said, we can imagine everything except the end of 
capitalism.

.....................
So then, most probable scenario: Code 46 - the film. 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_46)
.....................

- We figure out how to colonize the outer space. Issues postponed for 
few thousand years.

- Extraterrestrials enforce money-less Star Trek utopia.



Take a pick.

> come up, who owns them. We will have to develope a kind of mashinery
> that is suitable to be owned by the public.(e.g. the mashinery of

Somehow, "we" getting to own the means of production didn't quite work 
in the last few hundred years. What is supposed to have changed?





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