Algorithmic Capitalism and Educational Futures

• In Event: Capitalism, Knowledge, and Democracy

Abstract

Algorithmic capitalism is an aspect of informationalism or ‘cybernetic capitalism’, a term that I prefer because it speaks to the genealogy of postmodern capitalism and recognizes more precisely the cybernetic systems similarities among various sectors of the postindustrial capitalist economy in its third phases of development—from mercantilism, industrialism to cybernetics—linking the growth of the multinational info-utilities (e.g., Goggle, Microsoft, Amazon) and their spectacular growth in the last twenty years, with developments in biocapitalism and the informatization of biology, and fundamental changes taking place with algorithmic trading and the development of so-called financialization. This paper reviews “cognitive capitalism” as an aspect of third generation cybernetics examining the new logic and culture of social media, and the googlization of education.

Author

• Michael A. Peters, The University of Waikato