Varoufakis: IT technologies will overthrow Capitalism

[no more banksters]

The former Greek Minister of Finance, Yanis Varoufakis, ended his recent speech on the Future of Capitalism, at the New School, New York, with some interesting remarks.

As he said:

The world we live in, is increasingly rudderless, in a constant slow burning recession, while at the very same time, the increasing concentration in the IT sector is creating the new technologies that will do that which the Left has failed to do: overthrow Capitalism. It is really very simple.

The moment machines pass the Turing test properly, and you pick up the phone and you do not know whether the person you are talking to is a human being or a machine˙ the moment we are going to have 3D printers operating as public utilities - you can send any blueprint to it and it can print from one pin to a motorcycle, or to a car - the moment that this happens, we have not just a process of Schumpeterian creative destruction, but we have a process where economies of scale and the whole logic of corporate Capitalism collapses.

And at that point we have a major rapture that the political system which has been completely depleted of any semblance of Democracy, will not be able to regulate. At that point, humanity will be facing a juncture: will either move to a Star Trek-like Utopia, where technology becomes our slave and we manage to utilize its wealth creating capacity for the purpose of the common good, which will be democratically determined and not technologically, or, we are going to move towards a Matrix-like Dystopia where humans, independently on whether are the owners of these magnificent machines or the masses who are miserable and completely cut off productive society, will all become servants to the machines.

The choice will depend on Democratic politics. The choice is everyone's.

http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2016/05/varoufakis-it-technologies-will.html

[1939]

1. Here is a dismal thought

When electric streetcars, motor buses, automobiles, and farm tractors became common, all of a sudden we didn't need horses anymore. The US horse and mule population declined dramatically with horse racing, horse shows, and weird women being the only ones still needing a horse. Could the human population have to adjust to the "brave new world"?

[Baobab]

8. Vote for Hillary and the destruction of not only safety nets, the ABILITY to have them in the future

forever. Irreversibly.


Also, trading Americans jobs away for trade concessions elsewhere. Thats what they are doing.

[ToxMarz]

10. The ridiculous lengths posters are going to create some Hillary is the anti-Christ meme

is laughable. You are actually becoming the meme, deservedly.

[Hortensis]

23. Lol. Seriously, some people are developing

bizarre obsessions, this one definitely among them. We may need to make a two-year election season illegal just to protect national sanity. And that's no joke. These syndromes are being studied and the results are alarming.

Extremism is not inherently negative nor positive. However, extreme views do become connected to behaviors and actions which are increasingly disruptive.

Extremism can be a “one-way ratchet,” in that once started down a path of rigid commitment to unwavering principles and goals, compromise and moderation becomes increasingly unlikely.

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents." Robert F. Kennedy

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. June 14 cannot get here fast enough. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. When we get to 4 degrees centigrade

With climate change, likely within a human lifetime, not in the future, I expect a population crash. Climate scientists are talking species extinction if we get to 8 and that is possible by 2080 current trends

[surrealAmerican]

17. For the most part, it was not because we killed them, but ...

... because we stopped breeding so many new horses.

If more and more humans decide not to have children, is that a tragedy, or a boon to the new, smaller human population?

[sense]

18. Weird women?

Last edited Mon May 9, 2016, 03:24 AM - Edit history (1)

Such a bigoted statement. Now women who enjoy riding as a hobby are somehow less than those who enjoy watching football, or any other thing people enjoy? Can't we all just stop with the unwarranted generalizations based on one thing you know about someone?

[Fantastic Anarchist]

25. I don't think he was talking about them.

I think he's talking about Donkey Shows on the Mexican border.

[Marrah_G]

2. The powers that be will fight it all the way

This sort of reminds me of a Documentary I saw recently called "dark web".

[kentauros]

19. Also called the Deep Web.

Yes, I saw that late last year, and it was interesting. And most people have never heard of it.

Deep web (wikipedia)
Deep Web (documentary)

[Marrah_G]

20. Sorry, yes, deep web :)

I found it fascinating

[snot]

3. SH*T.

Thank you for this EXCELLENT post.

[no more banksters]

21. Thank you

Thanks!

[rug]

4. It all depends on whether capitalists continue to control the means of producing IT technology.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

26. Exactly.

[Warpy]

5. It's already turning into a numbers game

with the 0.1% and above noting only if the numbers go up or down and having no earthly idea of the purchasing power of all the numbers they've amassed. As it gets more and more abstract, rather than as tangible items one can exchange for other tangible items, it will start to become irrelevant.

Either there will be another way to mark debt (which is what money is) so that everybody else will continue to work and eat, or the whole business is going to collapse under its own weight. The scenario will likely be the latter followed by the former.

[Moostache]

9. I am afraid there will be significant bloodshed and death before the grip is broken...

The 0.1% are not going to give an inch.

They will attempt to hire strongmen to protect them at first, then when the "help" turns on them too, they will try to escape to their private islands and eventually they will turn on each other once they lose the one thing they want more than money or power or material objects - they want our envy. They want the "little" people to worship them and desire their lifestyle.

More than anything else, they are addicted to the adoration of others.

Doubt me?
Go watch a video of Lloyd Blankfein or any other asshole Wall Street shit head cry about how unfair it is that bankers are vilified for being vile...or the Kochs....or watch Jamie Johnson's videos from inside the world of the super rich, "Born Rich".

Fuck them all.

[brush]

6. That's kind of scary. Technology doesn't eat

What will be done with the useless eaters?

Or a better question, will all the useless eaters stand by to be eliminated or rise up and not starve?

[zentrum]

7. Terrifying actually.

I see very little here that will diminish the forces that oppose democracy, in any way.

[Hortensis]

24. Oh, please. You're on a political forum. If you can't

"see" the rest of us, Zentrum, go look in a mirror. Then imagine 150,000,000 others in the electorate as of now. Are you and all the rest of us REALLY going to turn ourselves into servants of machines?

It's important to remember that we ALWAYS dig ourselves into holes. Because we do, we're too stupid and conforming and unenterprising to stop when we first notice the dirt between our toes. But that's not the end, it's the next beginning. We always dig our way out, usually all the way and even farther, but always to some point we are satisfied with before we start the whole thing over again.

From about 1980 to 2008 we dug ourselves into a hole, around 2008 the newest progressive wave took hold and we started digging out. The Kochs couldn't get even one of their choices for president past the electorate, while we chose between 2 good progressive choices. We're doing pretty good.

Humanity has an extremely well established record for advancing the wellbeing of mankind that should be considered. Yes, we may average 199 steps back for every 200 forward, but the very consistent movement is forward. That's because it is in our interest for it to be that way.

[cantbeserious]

11. Full Video Here

[On the Road]

13. No One Better at Making Economic Projections

than a senior financial official in Greece.

[JackRiddler]

15. Very stupid comment, impossible without

a brutish prejudice against Greeks and Greece.

Like you know anything about Varoufakis or the issues he is addressing. Shameful.

[rogerashton]

27. He was fired for being right. nt

[Califonz]

16. My experience at work, if current trends continue,

is that humans will have to adapt to the machines.

[bemildred]

22. That's because the machines are not really capable of adapting to you. nt