Yanis Varoufakis: Technofeudalism

No one noticed when capitalism died. Perhaps we were too distracted by the implosion of global finance, or the rise of populism, or the demise of the planet – or all of those cute cats on Instagram.
But gradually, quietly, a yet more exploitative new system has taken hold: technofeudalism.
Written in the form of a letter to his late father, who first taught him about the power of new technologies to shape human history, Yanis Varoufakis explains how Big Tech has affected an invisible but fundamental transformation in all our lives.
Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Mad Men to Karl Marx, he explains how the key ingredients of capitalism – profit and markets – have both been replaced.
And he exposes the hidden connection between your personal data and the transformative power of ‘cloud capital’, which means that without our realising it, we’re all working every day for the tech giants, for free.
 
Grace Blakeley is a staff writer at Tribune and author of several books, including The Corona Crash: How the Pandemic Will Change Capitalism and Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation. She is the former economics commentator for the New Statesman, and has appeared frequently in UK and international media.