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The Fallacy of Techno-Feudalism
The article explores the concept of techno-feudalism in comparison to traditional feudal systems, and highlights both the opportunities and challenges of tech platforms in current digital economy.
According to the former finance minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, value extraction has increasingly shifted away from markets and onto large digital platforms, which no longer operate like oligopolistic firms, but rather like private fiefdoms or estates. It ended as a decline in late Middle Ages due to growth of trade and cities, rise of central monarchies, Black Death, development of new military technology – gradually transformed into nation states and modern capitalism. While I see the point of comparison between medieval feudalism and contemporary techno-feudalism (I guess reflection is always welcome), I also think it's necessary to provide a framework to understand the nuances in the ways of how “power dynamics” is exerted in the digital age.
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