Seize The Means Of Automation.

H. Klose
H. Klose
Aug 28, 2017 · 7 min read

Being both: interested in advancing technology and concerned with human future, equality and social justice from time to time makes me daydream about what will happen with humanity in the near future. Think about what impact the upcoming industrialization had on the living conditions of humanity.

“Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify.”

No need to go deeper into that, since this is already pointed out in the communist manifesto with a very precise and beautiful stirring tongue.

With AI evolving already by the speed of a steam powered spinning wheel we are once again on a turning point in human history.

Unfortunately humanity still did not gain control over its own destiny. All means of human existence depend on the often lauded ‘invisible hand of the market’, which means there is only insecure speculation about what comes next.

Will we all loose our jobs to AI? Maybe some divisions of the new evolving economic (tech) elites at some point will become kind of reasonable, seeing the big picture and distributing their power and wealth with the help of the same technologies that brought them up the ladder where they are now or will be then? (The technology to do so is already there too. I will come back to that soon.) Will there be a new elite with absolute power keeping most of humanity suffering in the suburbs of capitalism, while providing just enough participation to keep the system running smoothly? Or maybe a new Luddite movement, driven by rage of becoming useless while not seeing the big picture and chances of our time will throw us back to the cold arduous days of the middle ages?

Who knows.

Yup, but thats the problem already. We do not know, because we can not know. There is no organized will of humanity. There is just rivaling interests conflicting and/or cooperating on a basis of personal or Ingroup profit. And to top it all, the interests of the economic powerful (not only elites but also citizens of the countries dominating the distribution) repress the other interests because: Guess? Because there is more economic power to enforce the former.

Also I share the hope which speaks from many pieces written bei techanalysts nowadays, I fear with AI evolving by the speed of light in a few years we do not have a lot of time. We have to seize the means of automation. This could only be achieved through democratic control over the machines and the algorithms they process. Owning processing power may be the key. But it already is the case that this processing power is hold not by democratically governed entities but by corporations governed by their stakeholders. These stakeholders see themselves caught between the rule of profit and the penalty of economic downfall.

Are we doomed already?

I agree that there is not much hope this will change anytime soon. And with artificial intelligence making many traditional labor skills useless, making the owners of the means of production more powerful there are big changes coming. Thats inevitable. Seeing the need for human labor rapidly melting away one could dream of capitalism making itself redundant. But capitalism needs human labor like the moon needs the sun to shine.

briefly: If there is no human labor there is no wage. Without wage there is no commerce. Without commerce there is no profit.

So if we see the decline of work coming at the same time liberals start advocating for UBI, that might not as much be coincidence as it is a necessary development. Only if people are provided just enough economic power to reproduce themselves and thereby to participate in the market even if they are not actually selling their labor, the whole ‘commodity exchange thing’ that is called capitalism could somehow be rescued in the face of automation.

Read: what are commodities?

But that is not necessary. With machines taking care of more and more jobs and less work remaining which has to be done by humans, we have the chance to decouple wealth from work and capital. The idea of using machines to automate as much of the production process as possible and to distribute the thereby saved time equally within humanity as well as the products according to every individuals needs instead of using automation for some to get richer and the most to loose their jobs, is as old as machines themselves.

The tools are there already

With new technologies like AI and blockchain a decentralized democratically controlled production process on global scale seems within reach. Many of the decentralized blockchain projects perpetuate the reigning system of the power of capital by associating voting power to economic power. These self-appointed advocates of decentralized democracy are in fact promoting, researching and enforcing a new plutocracy, as the foundation of their projects is the unquestioned idea that only the ones willing and able to use capital are allowed to vote within their projects.

But there are ideas and projects already developed and researched on how to use these technologies for the better, decentralized and truly democratic future. The same technologies that enable the creation of investor-directed venture capital funds could be used to organize a workers-directed company, a new type of cooperative. A workers-directed federation of companies. A consumers-directed consumer cooperative. A federation to represent all cooperatives on several local, regional and global levels. A people-directed and AI backed entity allocating resources and products with the help of a decentralized plan. The free association has never been closer.

We should proclaim today: “The free association is democratic blockchain power plus artificial intelligence on a world scale.”

The closing window

To influence the course of history into that direction it might seem rational to convince capitalists that there is a chance for humanity right now and that it belongs to them to bring it into effect. If this is not successful (as some might predict and therefore not even try) the next step may be to bring democratic rule over processing power and artificial intelligence into effect by force.

But at the heart of capitalism there is not a ruling elite which is forcing its will upon humanity. The opposite is true: At the heart of capitalism there is the rule of surplus value which is forcing its ‘will' upon the economic elites. Exchanging the personal of capital is solving as much as explaining capitalists to do more charity: nothing fundamental. Exchanging it with an AI driven by the rule of capital will maybe make things worse.

Imagine a AI deciding what is produced where and when. Imagine this AI driven by neuronal networks designed and trained with data from the past. The past (including our presence) in which millions of people are starving and dying from curable deceases because it is not profitable for capital to provide them with the goods which are produced in abundance already.

The window of opportunity will be closed in the moment AI driven corporations gain the power to physically suppress any resistance to their rule. That moment when also the job of managing capital and relevant parts of law enforcement and/or military services are done by AI and AI driven drones. AI will perform as it is trained. An AI trained to maximize profit and keeping everything smooth and peaceful might act as kind of an abstracted agent of the capital. The whole capitalist class depersonified and merged into digital entities, producing and distributing only by the rule of surplus value. Accompanied with an AI controlling law enforcement (the state) digital will of capital might end up ruling humanity for all time with the legitimization of apparent proper constraints.

What to do?

As people concerned with the future of humanity, democracy, freedom, social justice and equality we should start organizing around the issues of our time. We have to put democratic control of the means of automation on the agenda as well as the demand for the abolition of wage labor. (The latter would be hard for some lefties to accept.) Democratic control of the processing power, the development and implementation of AI is crucial. We need to obtain the skills to manage these tasks. At the same time we need to research and experiment with the mentioned technologies. Starting cooperatives and joining them in blockchain driven federations. Bring together people and discuss the influences, risks and chances of the upcoming technological and economical changes.


If you are interested new socio-economic forms you might also enjoy reading The Telekommunist Manifesto.


My name is Heinrich. I am a technology enthusiast, a fan of social justice and democratic values. My work is completely funded by my readers and supporters. It is distributed freely. If you like to support me, consider a donation through my patreon page: www.patreon.com/h_klose

the free assocyation

Thoughts on technology in the service of the free association.

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H. Klose

Written by

H. Klose

the free assocyation

Thoughts on technology in the service of the free association.

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