Imagine one has just moved to a new city which has shopping malls, parks, cafés, theatres, etc. People are shopping, listening to music and buying books in one of those malls. Initially, one may think that it is a simple market system. However, s/he shall soon find that each and every shop and building in the city is actually owned by a person. Most importantly, the streets one walks on, the shops one visits… all are determined by an invisible algorithm run at the behest of the owner. It seems that the products one finds in a shop are actually tailored for her/him. However, someone else may view those products in a completely different manner.

This scenario is not at all a fictional one, but a reflection of contemporary digital economy. In his 2023 publication Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism, former Finance Minister of Greece and economist Yanis Varoufakis has explained why no one can keep the First World economies within the normal capitalist market system. This is such an economic structure where large corporations make profits solely by controlling various digital platforms, without paying much attention to creating new capital. And the common people (or consumers) spend their time and also give efforts to make this system even stronger, unknowingly.

Tech companies often generate enormous profits based on human labour. This is what Varoufakis calls Techno-feudalism or Technological feudalism. There are a number of differences between capitalism and feudalism. The most basic of them is that in a capitalist market system, personal income can be increased through one’s own labour, skills and talent. At the same time, one must continue to struggle to survive in (market) competition. On the other hand, tax-free income can be obtained only by owning economically productive assets in feudalism without much struggle.

Land was held as an economic asset by feudal lords in the Middle Ages. In the 21st Century world, tech giants own digital platforms. Amazon, Google, Meta, Instagram have created their own platforms which are used by countless people across the globe. It allows these companies to make huge profits. One’s viral YouTube video or like-worthy post on Meta and Instagram or homemade chocolates sold on Amazon help these digital companies to earn a huge amount of money, directly or indirectly.

The more people receive content or products, the more profits these platforms generate. However, not everyone benefits from this system. No matter how much one sells her/his contents through online platforms, the person is actually a buyer in the end. To be more precise, the person is not even a buyer, but a product. The big internet platforms have also started selling a lot of public information to various advertising companies on a regular basis. For the advertising companies, such information is an economic asset. Hence, they have to pay a certain amount to the internet companies for receiving the information.

According to Varoufakis, common people have become Data-serfs or information-based slaves in the 21st Century. People exchange various information, upload images and share opinions on social media every day. Tech giants use all the information to create more advanced Machine Intelligence or Artificial Intelligence (AI) that could be able to control the thought process of human beings. They store every like, dislike, opinion, shopping pattern and even chat with our near and dear ones in an attempt to make decisions on our behalf in the future.

When capitalists get rich, they build new factories, and invest in technology and research. However, when feudal lords acquire wealth, they purchase properties to generate profits by renting them. Technology companies invest in cloud capital, like servers, data lines and digital services, and charge people for using them. In his publication, Varoufakis has mentioned that Amazon has created a feudal system where sellers are subject to a feudal lord who keeps 51 cents per US Dollar and decides what products can be sold, as well as the advertising strategy. According to the former Greek minister, even the capitalists are subordinate to the cloudalist feudal lords in this new Post-Capitalist World. Contents, created and shared on social media by the common people, ultimately become the property of tech giants. Again, the tech-feudal lords can destroy any business at any moment only by pushing a button. A business can easily disappear if Google removes a company from its search index or Meta blocks its account or Apple removes its app(lication).

Such a fear has been exacerbated by recent advances in Agentic AI. Agentic AI is an intelligent technology that can understand situations and make decisions on its own. One can consider an autonomous car that is capable of sensing its environment and operating without human involvement as such the car can identify the road, what’s ahead, when to turn left and when to stop. Agentic AI has brought a revolutionary change to the world of data analysis by making information more usable through an automated decision-making process.

In the 21st Century world that is rocked by Climate Change, population explosion and mental health issues, many believe that AI would help the global community to overcome various crises. However, it is not possible for AI to control human emotions or to replace competition with cooperation. Profit-making tech giants, such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Alibaba and Tencent, are the real owners of AI. If these companies get an opportunity to rule the world, then they would never think about the greater good or humanity.

The only way to get rid of techno-feudalism is to create awareness, alternatives and self-reliance. As long as the tech giants control public information, technology and economy, people will remain data-serfs. It has become quite important to get rid of the rules of technology. Independent social media platforms and online services can help one to avoid services provided by big tech companies. It is also important to create local community-driven servers and networks in order to increase self-reliance. Such a move can only save people from the dominance of technology.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das