Verso Books

Algorithmic Capital - Jonathan Martineau, Jonathan Durand Folco

This book provides a critical theory of the new stage of algorithmic capitalism, and maps out paths for critique and resistance. AI and algorithms are not just technologies, they are rooted in new capitalist forms and processes that transcend economics and technology. as a result, they profoundly reshape social reality, politics, culture and subjectivities. Set out in 20 theses, that stretch from geopolitics, the mining of rare earths, labour, crypto, influencers, climate change, GenAI, social acceleration, Silicon Valley ideologies and predictive policing, this book situates contemporary social change in the context of the advent of algorithmic capital. Through this the authors show how the valorization of data and the development of AI are symptoms of deeper socio-economic and political mutations. Algorithmic capital is, at once, a logic of accumulation, a form of social power, a mediation of social relations and a relation to nature, as well as a multidimensional reality that profoundly reshapes social life. In the face of this new stage of capitalism, the book explores paths towards organizing and resistance, tracing ways of fighting and exiting algorithmic capitalism towards a post-capitalist and just world.

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