Hacking Politics: How Geeks, Progressives, the Tea Party, Gamers, Anarchists and Suits Teamed Up to Defeat SOPA and Save the Internet
by
David Moon
,
Patrick Ruffini
,
David Segal
,
Aaron Swartz
,
Lawrence Lessig
,
Cory Doctorow
,
Zoe Lofgren
,
Jamie Laurie
,
Ron Paul
,
Mike Masnick
,
Kim Dotcom
,
Tiffiniy Cheng
,
Alexis Ohanian
,
Nicole Powers
and
Josh Levy
Published 30 Apr 2013
But a substantial sub-portion of tech tends towards an anarcho-capitalist economic vision whereby an optimal society is one in which perfectly networked people-points engage in frictionless commerce, with very low taxes and a minimal social safety net, and in which unions—were they ever useful—are endemic to the ossified industrial structures that governed the Old Economy, and whose agitation unduly protects incumbents and generates economic inefficiencies. This is, in fact, much of the essence of the so-called California Ideology, an influential strain of Cyber Utopianism. (For a detailed historiography of these tendencies, watch any—ideally all—of Adam Curtis’s wonderful films, especially All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.) I am not a Cyber Utopian. I think the Internet is critically important and has, and will continue to, improve peoples’ lives the world round—but only so long as we fight to make sure it remains a force for the democratization of society, rather than a tool that the already-powerful can use to entrench themselves.
…
Deficit spending that’s too little to replace lost demand—and insufficient to compel banks and the wealthy to recommence lending—has enabled a collapse in government revenues, which has, in turn, led to the elimination of public employees’ jobs, remaining workers’ income growth stalling out, and waves of panic over pension liabilities that wouldn’t be a substantial burden under more sane national-level economic leadership. Now even Social Security and Medicare look likely to fall beneath lawmakers’ axes. Even were we all, indeed, the rational, omniscient, self-interested atoms posited by the California Ideology, it’s clear that many economic problems would best be solved through collective action. Two illustrations that I hope might appeal to my data-driven friends in Silicon Valley and Alley follow. First of all: there’s an essential game theory problem that helps sustain the decrepit state of our economy—it can be illuminated by that most canonical game theory thought experiment, in fact: in the Prisoners’ Dilemma, two partners in crime are hauled into jail and separated for questioning.
…
Rep. Darrell Issa was leading the Republicans’ charge towards Silicon Valley and had become one of the most outspoken SOPA/PIPA opponents—and his and other Republicans’ efforts were beginning to pay off: their pitch was resonating with adherents to the anarcho-capitalist, network utopian, “California” ideology that represents a substantial strain of belief in tech-centric communities. Political donations from tech interests were going to Republicans at a higher rate than in the past. Who could possibly blame them, given the ease with which traditional Democratic paymasters like Hollywood had that party doing their bidding during the SOPA/PIPA fight?
Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets
by
Brett Scott
Published 4 Jul 2022
Internet firms encourage this utopian imagination by continuing to draw upon the optimistic visions of a connected world that accompanied the Internet of the 1990s. Back then the Internet generated visions of a future meta-state, meta-society, meta-market called cyberspace. This set the scene for optimistic ideologies like the so-called ‘California Ideology’, the free-market techno-utopianism associated with Silicon Valley. This is a spirit I referred to in the last chapter, which comes bundled with visions of the Singularity and transhumanism – the belief that humans will transcend their limits by fusing into godlike union with global technology networks.
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Aadhar system, 44, 97, 169 abacuses, 159 ‘Abracadabra’, 50 accelerators, 17 active choice, 125 Acxiom, 109 Adventures of a Banknote, The (Bridges), 65 Aesop, 45–6 AirBnB, 150 Alameda, California, 102 alcohol, 102, 118, 170 Alexa, 147, 150 Alibaba, 2, 7, 114, 150, 178 Alipay, 114 Alphabet, see Google alt-coins, 13, 217–18 Althusser, Louis, 86 Amazon, 1, 2, 7, 133, 147, 149, 150, 174, 177, 249–50 Alexa, 147, 150 anti-cash lobbying, 41–2, 254 CBDCs and, 243, 244 Coin, 236 Pay, 150 Amazon region, 130, 176, 247, 249 American Revolutionary War (1775–83), 60 Ames Research Center, 153 Amnesty International, 222 Amsterdam, Netherlands, 128–9 Amy, 147 anarchism, 7, 14, 106, 183, 191, 193, 215 anarcho-capitalism, 14, 184 Andes, 96, 129 anthropology, 124 anti-feminism, 226 anti-Semitism, 225, 262 anti-statism, 42, 184, 215–16 antidotes, 52–4 Apollo 11 mission (1969), 153 Apple, 7, 125 apps and, 141 Card, 150 data, 108 Pay, 78, 125, 130 Super Bowl advert (1984), 8 apps, 1, 2, 7, 17, 27, 40, 125, 139–51, 232 data collection, 165–6 interfaces, 139–51 ArcelorMittal, 24 Aria, 169 Armer, Paul, 105–6 Art of Not Being Governed, The (Scott), 228 artificial intelligence (AI), 8, 11, 17, 108, 114, 147, 153–72, 175, 252 biases, 167 credit-scoring, 17, 160, 162–3, 167, 168, 170 data analysis, 108, 153–72 interfaces, 146–8 Asimov, Isaac, 161, 170 Assange, Julian, 183 Assemblage, New York City, 226 Astana, Kazakhstan, 227–9 Athens, Greece, 131 ATMs (automatic teller machines), 32, 34, 35, 36, 39, 48, 61, 62, 248 CIT industry, 62 closure of, 32, 39, 48, 83, 84, 85, 132 crises and, 36, 244 note denominations, 62 profitability, 39 Atwood, Margaret, 117 austerity, 193 Australia, 118 Austria, 7, 109 authoritarianism, 111, 118, 168 automatic payments, 149 automation, 9, 10, 33, 41–2, 99, 123, 126, 133, 137, 142–3, 232 apps, 139–51, 232 artificial intelligence, 153–72 automation of, 153–4 surveillance, 112, 114, 153–72 aviaries, 171 Azure cloud, 233 Back to the Future (1985 film), 198 Baidu, 7, 178 Bangladesh, 32 Bank for International Settlements, 79 Bank Identification Codes (BIC), 76 Bank of America, 38, 75, 147 Bank of England, 40, 242, 243 banking sector, 38–9, 65–82 accounts, 31, 35, 46, 66, 132, 205–6 artificial intelligence, 153–72 ATMs, see ATMs bailouts, 113 centralisation of power, 15, 180–83 closures of ATMs/branches, 32, 39, 48, 83, 84, 85, 132 cloudmoney, 64, 66–82 data, 108–9, 156–7 deposits, 66–7, 69 electronic trading platforms, 158 exiting, 39, 48, 61, 63, 68, 83 federated frontline, 136–8, 147 high-street banks, 39–40, 158 interbank markets, 138, 231 interfaces, 138–51 international transfers, 74–6, 108, 179 Internet banking, 76–7, 139 investment banks, 6, 17, 22–3, 26, 113, 157–8 loans, 70–71, 107, 159 money creation, 59–63, 67–72, 202 operating system, 141–2 secondary system, 50, 63–4 sub-currencies, 72–3 transfers, 72–8 banknotes, 59–63 cash-in-transit companies, 62 counterfeiting of, 60–61 denominations, 62 polymer, 65 Bannon, Steve, 225, 234 Barclays, 38, 72–3, 116 base money, 69 beggars, 115 Better Than Cash Alliance, 34–5, 37, 45, 93, 96, 131 biases, 167 bicycles, 89, 90 Big Bouncers, 114, 170 Big Brother, 113–15 Big Butlers, 114, 170–71 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 44–5 biometrics, 44, 150, 169 biotechnology, 10, 11 Bitcoin, 13–15, 16, 184–5, 187–210, 211–18 blockchain technology, 13–15, 185, 189–90, 195, 197–202 Cash fork (2017), 214, 217 climate change and, 226 as commodity, 206–10, 213–14, 217, 246, 256 countertradability, 209–10, 213, 256–7 decentralisation, 14, 15, 189–94, 196, 258 fixed supply, 191–3, 206 gold comparison, 192–3, 207, 214 millenarianism and, 212, 213 mining, 203–4, 212–13 politics and, 191–3, 211–12, 215–17 proof-of-work, 203–4 public addresses, 194–5 speculation on, 213 syncing, 195–7, 200–202, 231 techno-clerks, 194–5, 196–7, 202–4, 212–13 wallets, 194–5 White Paper (2008), 13, 184–5, 187, 191 Bitcoin Cash, 214–15, 217, 226 Bitcoin Gospel, The (2015 film), 211 Blade Runner 2049 (2017 film), 10 blockchain, 13–15, 185, 189–90, 195, 197–202, 219–26, 258–60 decentralisation, 14, 15, 189–94, 196, 230, 234, 255, 258–60 distributed ledger technology (DLT), 229–46, 258 mutual credit systems and, 260 blood diamonds, 222 Bloomberg, 109 Body of Glass (Piercy), 150 BP, 24, 26, 28 bread-making machine, 164 Bridges, Thomas, 65 British Airways, 29–30 British Bankers Association, 83 Brixton Market, London, 177 Bulgaria, 13 Bundesbank, 35, 47 bureaucracy, 179 Burning Man, 101 busking, 90–91 Buterin, Vitalik, 221, 223 California Ideology, 180 Camberwell, London, 128 Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime, 111 Cambridge University, 97 Canada, 35 Canary Wharf, London, 17–18, 20, 41, 62, 211 cannabis, 101–3 capitalism, 2, 10, 47, 65, 98–9, 173–4 blockchain and, 15–16, 231–46, 256, 258 charging up, 22–5 core vs. periphery, 28, 248 giant parable, 54–5, 63–4, 188 growth, 123, 126–7, 249 surveillance, 33, 114, 180, 250 carbon credits, 222 CARE, 131 cargo cults, 255–6 Caritas, 131 carnivals, 257 cars, 87–90 cash, 22, 29–48 banking sector and, see banking sector banknotes, 59–63 central banks and, 42–5, 254 crime and, 36, 42–3, 45, 81, 112 crises and, 36, 61 cycle, 63, 68 demonetisations, 43 fintech industry and, 41–2 hoarding, 36 issuance of, 59–63 libertarians and, 215 payments companies and, 39–41 refusal of, 29–30, 40, 41, 43, 84, 128, 133 social class and, 91–9 tax evasion and, 42, 43, 45, 46 thresholds, 42 transactional usage, 36 cash-in-transit companies, 62 ‘cash or card?’
The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty
by
Benjamin H. Bratton
Published 19 Feb 2016
It relies on software as both a kind of language and a kind of technology, of algorithms of expression and the expression of algorithms, and this twisting of the conceptual and the machinic can sometimes bring emotional distress.19 For some, an apparently universal convertibility of social systems into software systems motivates euphoric convictions in the instantaneous self-realization of networked individuals, a particularly Californian enthusiasm spanning from the ingenious to the idiotic. (The so-called California Ideology is not what I am referring to here. That term was always a simplistic New Left chestnut that crudely lumped Survival Research Laboratories and Page Mill Road venture capitalists into one cohort.)20 However, the extremities of convictions also give way to a more nuanced complex of platforms that not only augment force and authority but constitute first-order modes of authority on their own (they are discussed in following chapters).
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For one alliance, the agonistic telos of human history is more self-evident, and for another, history doesn't even contain itself, let alone the world. 18. On “basing and superstructuring,” see Fredric Jameson, Valences of the Dialectic (London: Verso Press, 2010). 19. Coming to mind, perhaps unfairly, are the declarations of confusion and outrage continuously forthcoming from Jürgen Habermas. 20. For the original 1995 “California Ideology” essay by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, see http://www.alamut.com/subj/ideologies/pessimism/califIdeo_I.html. For a characteristically misinformed contemporary take on Google, see Shoshanna Zuboff's “Dark Google” in Frankfurther Allgemeine, April 30, 2014, http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshanna-zuboff-dark-google-12916679.html?
…
For a characteristically misinformed contemporary take on Google, see Shoshanna Zuboff's “Dark Google” in Frankfurther Allgemeine, April 30, 2014, http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshanna-zuboff-dark-google-12916679.html?printPagedArticle=true. For those unfamiliar, Survival Research Laboratories is a Bay Area-based “industrial performing arts” collective famous for its pyrotechnic displays of machinic mayhem and which might typify a DIY engineering ethic often associated with the “California Ideology,” whereas Page Mill Road in Palo Alto (and Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park) have housed important clusters of important Silicon Valley venture capital firms. 21. Nick Whitford-Dyer, “Red Plenty Platforms,” Culture Machine 14 (2013): 1–27, and Tiziana Terranova, “Red Stack Attack!” in #Accelerate: The Accelerationist Reader, ed.
Uncanny Valley: A Memoir
by
Anna Wiener
Published 14 Jan 2020
A stranger’s disembodied hands slowly shaved soap. A stranger got married in a castle in Nice. A stranger did a set of kettlebell swings using a woman as a weight, while a dog licked itself on the couch. * * * I searched for answers, excuses, context, conclusions: Define: technocracy. California ideology. Jeffersonian democracy. Electronic agora. Ebola. State slogans. New dark mole. Tanuki. Feminist porn. Feminist porn not annoying. What is canned ham? How old too old law school? Best law schools. Law schools rolling admissions. Islamic State. Silk pajamas. Elbow moisturizer. Unshrink wool sweater.
The New Class Conflict
by
Joel Kotkin
Published 31 Aug 2014
NASA and the Defense Department40 were dominant among early customers, while Lockheed Missiles and Space remained easily the Valley’s largest employer as late as the 1980s.41 But as the technological revolution shifted from hardware to software, and federal spending dropped, Silicon Valley began to diverge from the Galbraithian model. These new players were animated not by conventional business thinking but by something defined by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron as “the California ideology,” a unique amalgam of free market conservatism, social liberalism, and technological utopianism.42 This synthesis differed from the Galbraithian ideal in terms of corporate culture. On the individual level, the new California executives cast a very different image than the company men of earlier science-based aerospace and computer firms.
The Long Boom: A Vision for the Coming Age of Prosperity
by
Peter Schwartz
,
Peter Leyden
and
Joel Hyatt
Published 18 Oct 2000
On the surface, identifies the emergence of a new form of suburban city-and analyzes it positively, as the future being born. On a deeper level, it also makes the case for the ingenuity and adaptability of average Americans, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe (New York: Bantam Books, 1968). Captures the essence of the northern California ideology of extreme openness and creative exploration by telling the story of the countercultural heyday leading up to 1968. That somewhat moderated mentality partly accounts for the region's high-tech success today. The End of Work, the Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the PostMarket Era, by Jeremy Rifkin (New York: Putnam, 1995), A wrongheaded book that is interesting because of how it completely misinterprets global economic trends and epitomizes the common fears about the future.
Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand
by
John Markoff
Published 22 Mar 2022
Whole Earth Discipline opened with his new epigraph: “We are as Gods and HAVE to get good at it,” underscoring his belief in the existential threat of climate change. Nevertheless, Whole Earth Discipline also marked a fundamental break with his youthful libertarian, do-it-yourself philosophy. It was his earlier perspective that had been called out as the “California Ideology” in 1995 by two British academics in a critique of what they called “dotcom neoliberalism”—a blending of hippie libertarianism and conservative economics. That view of Brand was further documented by sociologist Thomas Streeter and communications theorist Fred Turner, who both trace an intellectual through line from the Whole Earth Catalog to the emergence of the libertarian online culture that emerged beginning in the mid-1980s.[12] None of the critics appeared to realize, however, the degree to which Brand had changed his mind about the value of “good” government from his year spent consulting for Jerry Brown in Sacramento long before the emergence of a digital culture.