#post capitalism

[eco-situationism]

#anti capitalism #post capitalism #eco situationism #situationism #ecology #climate change

[alpaca-clouds]

Democratizing Media

Alright, one thing first: When politicians speak about "democratizing media" they usually mean something else then what scientist say, when they use those words. Politicians mostly mean something along the lines of "media should say what I want instead being controlled by some coorporation, because like I am elected, right?" Meanwhile scientist mean something else.

You see, before the internet became easily accessible for most people, the only way to access media was through certain outlets. TV stations, the cinema, some publishers and some record lables.

Yes, sure. Technically self-publishing was a thing even back then, but without the ease of the internet... How were you to market your own book or comic? And self-made music usually just circulated on copied and copied again casette tapes.

Usually, if you wanted to create media that actually people would see, you had to go through a big company. And those companies could very much decide who got to make movies and tv, who got to publish music or books or comics. Not only where those decisions controlled by capitalist interest, but also by nepotism and cultural biases, given that a lot of the people making those decisions where (and still are to these days) white, cis, abled men.

But when the internet came around things changed. Because suddenly everyone had a way easier time in getting their stuff out there. Pretty early on there were websites where people could just publish their stories and comics online. Either free and hosted by some other website or paid on their own site. Which was pretty revolutionary, especially as suddenly ideas that had been ignored could reach a new audience.

Voices, that by news media and such had been ignored so far - voices of women and marginalized folks - could suddenly broadcast over all sorts of channels.

And yes, you could also just publish your music and what not online, could also do your own research and offer it to the world and could actually get heard.

Now, we all know that this came with ups and downs. Because while finally marginalized people were heard like this, it also gave a bigger platform to some fringe conspiracy groups and the like. But at least there was a chance to get your stuff out there.

Social media websites and the like played a big role in this. Especially Youtube, of course, but other sites, too........ which of course brings me to the problem. Or rather to the question: "Is media democratized right now?"

Because it isn't, of course.

Right now we have these chokepoints, where you kinda are forced to push whatever you create through a channel. Sure, you can upload your videos on your own server, but probably nobody will see them. They need to be on youtube. Just like your music now needs to be on spotify and itunes. And if you self-publish a book, it kinda needs to be available on amazon or you won't sell shit. And if you have your own little blog and do not promote it on social media (or have it not integrated on a blogging platform such as tumblr) it will not be seen.

And this brings two issues with it (well, actually three). For one, as private companies those sides are able to censor you in any way they want to. They decide you cannot say the word "queer" anymore? Welp, no more talking about queer issues for you. And because they are a private company nobody can do much against it. Like with the tumblr purge. No more "female presenting nipples" for you.

The next issue is closely related: The companies in question want to make money. This they do mostly through advertisement and maybe subscriptions. Hence their goal is to keep you interacting with their website for a long while. And thus they have algorithms that decide what content you see - and hence if the content decides that something you do is not worth it or will get the wrong kind of attention... Well, nobody will get it shown. On a lot of social media we see, for example, that the negative content gets shown to more people. So writing about positive stuff does often not get you seen. (Which is why algorithms are bad. Don't fucking build your social media websites around a fucking algorithm.)

And lastly: A lot of media additionally to all of that also uses a system of partly manual currated. This is true for Netflix, who obviously want to make sure that the front page does show the stuff they either paid a lot of money for or that they produced themselves. Like, there is an infinity of great indie movies on Netflix, but if you do not know it is there, you will not see it. Same goes for a lot of Indie Games on Steam, that just go unnoticed, because they do not appear anywhere near the front page and just happen to go overlooked by folks. And in the end the big studios obviously have the money to get their games on the front page. Same with books on amazon, where just the difference in marketing budget makes sure, that certain books will end up front.

So, why am I telling all of that?

Because we still do have the tool. We can make a free, democratic internet like that. Where we do not have censorship (please note: banning people for saying hateful shit is actually not censorship, so yeah, ban them nazis). Where we do not have fucking algorithms. And where just everything has the same chance of getting seen.

Like, does not mean that there cannot be any currated lists. Like, those currator pages on steam? Those are fucking great. Lists where everyone just can make those and you can subscribe to their lists. That is amazing. But... you know. Not for the baseline experience, but for what everyone wants their experience to be like.

Just... a thing that bothers me. Based on the stuff I spoke about yesterday.

#democratizing media #democratizing #anti capitalism #post capitalism #anarchism #free the internet #solarpunk #social media #steam games #netflix #disney #indie games #indie movies #indie books

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Holy shit, this paragraph from Yanis Varoufakis's next book, Techno-Feudalism:

Image id: But the technologies that spawned cloud capital have proved more revolutionary than any of their predecessors. Through them, cloud capital has developed capacities that previous types of capital goods never had. It has become once an attention-holder, a desire-manufacturer, a driver of proletarian labour (of cloud proles), an elicitor of massive free labour (from cloud serfs) and, to boot, the creator of totally privatised digital transaction spaces (cloud fiefs like amazon.com) in which neither buyers nor sellers enjoy any of the options they would in normal markets.3 As a result, its owners - the cloudalists - have acquired the ability to do that which the Edisons, the Westinghouses and the Fords never could: to turn themselves into a revolutionary class actively displacing the capitalists from the top of society's pecking order. at

#post capitalism #technofeudalism #books #yanis varoufakis

[slacktivist]

SOME OF THOSE THAT WORK FORCES.

ARE THE SAME THAT BURN CROSSES.

Keep watching, keep learning, keep speaking about the crimes against humanity committed by the world's wealthy elite. Just because you sleep comfortably does not make you innocent. The powerful and plentiful of the EU and North America fund the crises in Palestine, in Congo, and in Sudan.

Do NOT desensitise yourself to atrocities committed around the globe, do NOT over-consume traumatic and disturbing materials of human suffering, do NOT stop at reblogging, and DO NOT DISENGAGE OR DROP-OUT. DO keep reading about the history, listen to the words spoken by the people on the ground and who are there, bring it up at the dinner table, normalise politics in the tearoom, spread kindness, wellness and be grateful for what you have.

#colonialism #post capitalism #indigenous #palestine #sudan #congo #rare earth minerals #metallurgy #open science #open access #new zealand #aotearoa #conservative #judaism #islam #christianity #catholocism #bureaucrats #stratification #gentrification #fauxmoi

[rimon-limon]

Solarpunk Aesthetic Week Final Day: Worldbuilding Thoughts Three!!!

Because my silly little brain is hyperactive as heck.

"It takes a village to raise a child"? That's true now. The kids in the commune don't need to have dictated caregivers, they just chill with who they want. Houses welcome to children can be marked with a special symbol- Every adult who feels comfortable with kids is in a special groupchat (or the like) for the collective parents to chat about how their kids are all doing. Those adults who don't want to be kid-raisers don't join the group chat and don't mark their house, and kids are taught to not to bother them.

We all pitch in to help with the commune, but also to cover each other on days we can't work for whatever reason! Is it shabbat? Is your mom sick? Are your migraines bad today? Are you feeling burnt out? Do you just not want to? Then you don't have to work to do anything. Of course, a whole lot of manual labor (such as milling wheat and other grains into flour) would be automated with robots! The ickiest worst jobs aren't for anyone.

Lights! Lights on Hanukkah, on Diwali, on Christmas. Window-shutters close automatically on houses past sunset so inhabitants can have their lights on without polluting and confusing animal life. Floating lanterns, a soft glow on a gentle face, kids laughing with fireflies cupped in their hands, a dazzling array of stars blinking quietly down on the Earth..

Allergies, intolerances, and food sensitivities are all respected and taken careful note of, and restaurants offer a diverse array of options including vegan meals and allergy-friendly kosher and halal menus!

Kids are considered kids until their brain is fully developed, but are given agency as soon as they can articulate and move themselves. Kids aren't allowed to leave the commune without supervision, though, but inside the commune it's totally alright cuz eyes on the street.

High-tech hormone readers on cameras with AI trained to detect signs of distress and assault, and begin blaring a loud alarm, could be placed wherever. I'm not one for surveillance states, but if we have fire alarms, we could have alarms for other things too, right?

Communal service dogs! Someone had a seizure, a stroke? BARK BARK BARK BAKRBABRKABABRK

In the cities, perhaps a commune is considered your 15-minute sphere? They're divided and governed as such, but cities can also have higher levels of division if necessary.

Food factories! Greenhouses the size of commercial warehouses, giant aquaponics facilities, all kept by robots and an automatic delivery service to restaurants or homes or wherever need be.

That concludes this set of thoughts, and this Solarpunk Aesthetic Week! Woohoo! I hope everyone had a wonderful time <3

#text post #worldbuilding #solarpunk aesthetic week #solarpunk aesthetic #solarpunk #solarpunk worldbuilding #solarpunk world #city planning #urban design #urban planning #city design #post capitalism #high tech high hope

[sustainableprosperity2]

Degrowth and Ecosocialism | Jason Hickel

Economic anthropologist, Jason Hickel, is one of the leading degrowth researchers leading the charge for ecosocialism. He says if we limit the energy demands of the elite and hungry multinational corporations, reimagining economics to support and nurture human dignity, we could stay within our planetary boundaries—and lift the entire world out of poverty. 🔴 Interview Transcript available for Patrons: https://patreon.com/planetcritical

#degrowth #ecosocialism #anticapitalism #post capitalism #Youtube

[harperthejay]

Get your very own MARA today!

243 years, 11 months, 1 week, and 4 days ago, a robotics corporation called Android Engineer International introduced the first humanoid computational construct to the world; the Multipurpose Autonomous Robotic Android (aka MARA). While prohibitively expensive at first, their immediate success drove AEI to optimize production, and within the decade, MARAs were as ubiquitous as cell phones or television.

#ttrpg #ttrpg design #ttrpgs #ttrpg community #ttrpg art #indie ttrpg #tabletop #robot #robots #post apocalypse #post apocalyptic #post capitalism #solarpunk #sci fi

[ivo3d]

I hesitated a lot about sharing it here, but: 23.02.2024 at Kollab during the Lighthouse association exhibition '12Hz' there going to be a performance called 'GEN.-X' with dance, live electronic music and video-projection.

#lighthouse_art #performing art #performance #visual #kollab #Mammut 1. 3.em #plaza #video art #budapest #experimental #media artist #artists on tumblr #ivo3d #generative #generative art #gen-x #gen x #post capitalism #synthetic art

[kp777]

By Simon Tyrie

Jacobin

Aug. 16, 2023

Unlike many classic works of sci-fi, Star Trek offered an optimistic vision of humanity’s future — one where democracy triumphs, exploitation is ended, and everyone’s material needs are met.

It’s the year 2364 and a tatty old space shuttle containing former Wall Street capitalist Ralph Offenhouse, who was cryogenically frozen in 1994, has just been discovered floating through space by a starship called the Enterprise–D. Upon waking, Offenhouse discovers that, although science has found a cure for his previously terminal illness, his bank accounts and investments have all gone. To his horror, not even his beloved Wall Street Journal has survived the ravages of time.

“A lot has changed in the past three hundred years,” the ship’s captain Jean-Luc Picard tells him. “People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of things. We’ve eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions. We’ve grown out of our infancy.”

Read more.

#star trek #post capitalism #democracy

[alpaca-clouds]

Media in a Solarpunk world

Yeah, there is a reason I spoke about Indie games yesterday. Because I want to speak about this one thing that I have never ever seen discussed within the solarpunk sphere.

If we established a Solarpunk world, how would it change our media landscape?

Confused? Well, let me break it down.

Solarpunk is only possible without capitalism. It is simply as it is. We will not established the "sustainable living" under capitalism. We can now discuss on whether to go socialism or communism, but... yeah. No more capitalism.

But here is where the media comes in: Most media we consume right now is released through big coorporate media outlets. This is especially true for stuff like games and movies. AAA games and blockbuster movies with their budgets of hundreds of millions and teams of thousands working behind them getting distributed through other big companies at times making billions of dollars... Even most books or comics or audiobooks or even podcasts get published and distributed through companies being valued in the hundreds of millions at least. Because the attention economy is set up in the way that you have no chance if you do not have your books on amazon and your podcasts not on spotify or itunes.

And without capitalism all of that will fall away.

This will be of course most noticable with movies and games. Again, the most popular of those will have hundreds of millions in budget and are dependent on the crunch work of thousands of people on every way of the step. And of course there is this big studio system right now deciding on what gets created.

But without capitalism... You will probably not motivate thousands of people to crunch the hell out of something. Hundreds of people? Sure. Thousands? No. Not even without the crunch. Because the current system of creating this media is not sustainable. Not from a human perspective - and not from an environmental perspective.

What I am saying is... There will probably no longer be high fidelity blockbusters or the kind of huge TV productions we have seen since Game of Thrones.

And I am here to tell you... that is actually a good thing.

See, in the gaming sphere we actually see it already. There are Indie Games that are at times created on a shoestring budget of a couple of thousand dollars. And because we have some great platforms to distribute them easily with steam and itch.io, people will actually see those games and play them. Might actually end up prefering them to the big ass million dollar games.

Now, the system is not perfect, given that yes, with the exception of itch.io the shops behind it all still run under capitalism. But if you compare it to stuff like movies... It is actually already fairly democratized.

Which is also something that I would then love to see for movies. An easy way to just access indie movies. Be it the "exactly one million dollar indie movies", which are still the majority given that making movies is expensive, or actually those project done by students in their freetime.

Big cities might actually already have their "indie movie festivals" right now. But it is something I want to see more off. With a higher appreciation for movies that do not get a theatrical release, because physical big screens are limited, even if we start democratizing them. (I will talk tomorrow about what it means to democratize media.)

The internet in the end will be a big part of a solarpunk world, because it actually allows us to not only participate in society, but also will give us access to both knowledge and media.

And yes, in a smaller degree this will also impact the other forms of media. Already it is pretty possible to self-publish books or comics, but usually you will often barely get back the investment, let alone being paid for the work that went into the creation of the book from your own end.

Because chances are, that you just will not reach too many people with it. Because the big publishers will usually easily outmarket you, because they have a marketing budget that you will simply lack.

But without those central publishers existing - and work in general being differently compensated than under the capitalist system... It should be easier. Fairer. Allowing for more different ideas, for more different voices to be heard through media.

Yeah, there probably will no longer be much in terms of high fidelity special effects, because there will no longer be hundreds or thousands of SFX guys slaving away for this one big movie. But... That is okay.

Like, I will rather have a movie with a great story, than amazing big explosions, don't you agree?

#solarpunk #solarpunk worldbuilding #solarpunk fiction #solarpunk media #movies #blockbuster #films #AAA games #indie games #indie movies #media without capitalism #anti capitalism #post capitalism

[solamelike]

The worst part about self driving cars is that mine pulls over every 5 minutes to let premium subscribers drive through unimpeded. I mean, with the price of fuel only going up it sucks that i also apparantly have to pay another 20 credits a month (ontop of the 10 i pay not to have ads) just to drive in traffic.

#self driving cars #cyberpunk #scifi #dystopia #capitalism #post capitalism

[life-in-marigold]

I was born when the Berlin wall fell.

My parents had more purchasing power than they'd ever dreamed of. I had more toys than they'd ever dreamed of.

When I was 7, the teachers showed us a picture of giant city under a brown smog-filled sky. They told us that this was the future.

The most fun thing to do on the new school computers was MS Paint.

I had my first phone when I was 13. It took tiny, pixilated images. My friends were fascinated.

I wrote stories and exchanged them with strangers around the world for free.

At high school, they told us we should all aim to go to university. University would guarantee us a good job, they said.

I came of age with the financial crash in 2008. My parents demanded to know why I couldn't get a part-time job.

The first time I moved abroad, I printed out maps and wrote the transit times on the back of the sheet of paper. The second time I moved abroad, it was all on my phone.

Some of us got married and had children. Some of us didn't. Some had children and didn't get married. It didn't matter any more.

If your parents had saved up, you could buy a property.

I was in my twenties and still had time. Then the pandemic happened. Then I was in my thirties.

I'm a millenial.

I'm the generation that capitalism failed.

#capitalism #post capitalism #millennials #tech revolution

[goddess-help-us]

I really dislike how the terms "personal care" or "self care" have been monopolized by both capitalism (both directly and indirectly).

The direct way, of course, is companies trying to sell you "self care" products, like bath bombs, discounted rose, get away trips, etcetera. There's nothing inherently wrong with these things, but when these items or experiences consume one's idea of what self care is or can be, then I think that's a problem.

The indirect way, at least what I've concluded, is how "psychology Instagram" depicts self care as resting, setting boundaries, letting some things slide, etcetera. I call this indirect capitalism because, although a product isn't being sold to you per se, Instagram is still pushing these ideas to users because of the algorithm and helping to sell user data. In any case, I don't think there's anything wrong with these per se, either. My problem is that I think this still misses the point because these, to me, seem more like tools for self care, rather than adopting a mentality of self care and leaving behind an underlying mentality that is causing people unhappiness in the first place.

To me, self care is more about this idea of "stewardship". It's living intentionally and knowing the reasons why you do what you do. It's very much like growing a garden. It's a cross-seasonal repetitive effort that lasts a lifetime. There's no one-timers. We might experience certain moments where we realize certain things that help us live more intentionally. We might also memorialize certain moments when we made changes for the better in our lives. But these, to me, are not self care in and of themselves. Because self care is more like mothering a baby -- being present and responding to things in the moment. It's about not living life on autopilot. It's about growing out of "set it and forget it" ideas that were given to us by mass consumerist society. Our lives are so complicated these days and we have so many responsibilities and commitments. Are we really being authentic in all these spaces? It's about letting things go when they need to go.

#personal #thoughts #self care #spirituality #personal care #post capitalism

[sustainableprosperity2]

Creating The Alternative | Pat Kane

“A life beyond your wildest dreams” is promised to those entering Narcotics Anonymous, a decentralised, collectively-run program for sobriety in which fellow addicts help one another get and stay clean. The promise doesn’t make sense when you first hear it—it’s only after months, even years, of becoming someone different that you realise how limited your imagination was made by addiction. I think of our global relationship to capitalism very similarly. It’s difficult to imagine life without it, and thus a better world, but that doesn’t mean such a world isn’t possible. So how do we unleash our imaginations and creativity to create a culture and a world beyond our wildest dreams, one in which we look after one another and the more-than-human world? How do we code for care?

#post capitalism #anticapitalism #future #end stage capitalism #Youtube

[harperthejay]

A New Game from Chubby Crow Games

Sapience.exe is now in development, and you can check out my recent devlog about it below.

Go ahead, what are you waiting for?!

#ttrpg #ttrpg design #ttrpgs #ttrpg community #ttrpg art #indie ttrpg #tabletop #robot #robots #post apocalypse #post apocalyptic #post capitalism #solarpunk #sci fi