The document discusses metastable shifts in capitalism from a system based on surplus to one based on debt, and from localized industrial labor to distributed cognitive labor. This shift from surplus to debt and localized work to cognitive labor is having profound effects on cultures and individuals. Capitalism can be likened to a battery that was historically powered by localized industrial labor but is increasingly powered by distributed cognitive labor. The mining of cognition from individuals and groups parallels the historical mining of natural resources, producing both positive and negative externalities. Understanding these changes requires grounding the abstract concepts in personal feelings through reflective and recursive processes.

1. Metastable Shifts
in (Cognitive) Capitalism
David J. Walczyk
© David Walczyk

2. Capitalism is …!
a metastable system !
of beliefs and related actions.!
!
Metastable means a system that is able to
remain stable during periods of instability.
© David Walczyk

3. The metastability of capitalism
is shifting (overheating)…
from a system based on
Surplus !
!
to a system based on
Debt!
!
Debt is promised libido (energy).
It is future oriented - an owed!
!
Surplus is excess libido (energy).
It is in potentia - an owned
© David Walczyk

4. Capitalism can be likened to a battery.
A battery is powered by the energy it stores.
!
Historically…
The capitalist battery was primarily powered by
!
localized industrial labor!
!
Nowadays it’s increasingly powered by…
!
distributed cognitive labor
© David Walczyk

5. Since the world is, or is in the process of becoming, a
‘globalized capitalist economy’
these two shifts in political economy…
!
from
surplus to debt!
and from
localized industrial labor to distributed cognitive labor!
!
…are having profound effects on
cultures and the individuals within them.
© David Walczyk

6. For example…!
There’s a good chance that your (grand)parents experienced…
!
A more localized industry with surplus
!
while you experience…
!
A more distributed cognition with debt.!
!
How might this cultural shift affect the !
meaning of “The American Dream”?
© David Walczyk

7. Yet…!
!
While the future isn’t what it used to be,
old tools can be used for new times.
!
Remember that capitalism is metastable.
© David Walczyk

8. Take mining.!
!
Historically the process of mining has been applied to
natural resources drawn from the earth
!
nowadays the process of mining has been applied to
cognition drawn from people.!
!
(of course this has always occurred but not anywhere near to the extent to which it does contemporarily)
© David Walczyk

9. The mining of cognition is the mining of ‘positive externalities’
(so-called ‘knowledge’)
extracted
formally and informally
from
individuals, groups, and entire cultures.
© David Walczyk

10. Like the mining of natural resources
the mining of cognition also has ‘negative externalities.’
!
These are often ignored
by those seemingly more interested
in the value of the positive externalities.
!
Negative externalities include…
stress, anxiety, depression, substance addiction, cultural
homogenization, spectacle,
etc…
© David Walczyk

11. Like the mining of natural resources…!
!
Mining cognition includes
the mining of what is already known and what is not yet known
!
codified ‘knowledge’ (already known)
!
and
noncodified ‘knowledge’ (not yet known)
© David Walczyk

12. The mining of codified knowledge
is achieved through a process likened to
pattern recognition
and its
application to a real or created need
by way of its
concretization (in the form of products and services).
© David Walczyk

13. The mining of noncodfied knowledge
is achieved through a process of
individual and collective so-called ‘creativity’
and its
refinement into codified knowledge !
where it can be used immediately or stored.
© David Walczyk

14. That said…!
!
As much as we want to intellectually understand the abstraction we call
the ‘political economy of new media’
we also want to grasp what it means to us
individually and collectively.
!
We need to ground it in feeling.
© David Walczyk

15. This grounding…
!
is a reflective and recursive process that,
ironically perhaps,
requires a high degree of cognitive flexibility
within a capitalistic system that,
at times,
may seem to discourage it.
© David Walczyk

16. This grounding process is
reflective
because it requires
an acute willingness and ability to take what we
know and learn,
turn inward with it,
process it,
!
and then…
assign some sort of value
to the outcome.
© David Walczyk

17. This grounding process is
recursive
because it requires
an acute willingness and ability to allow
the outcomes of reflection to influence
subsequent thoughts and actions
!
and then
!
for these refined thoughts and action to
participate in the next iteration of the reflective process.
© David Walczyk

18. A way to engage with this grounding process would be to
use, and extend, the logic of cognitive capitalism itself.
© David Walczyk

19. To ask…
What are the positive and negative ‘externalities’ of my cognitive labor?
!
And then, if you’re up to it, seek even more ground…!
!
How do these ‘externalities’ affect my life?
Whom do these ‘externalities’ benefit?
Whom do these ‘externalities’ impair?
The cost of this process is, of course, naivety. !
The gain, perhaps, an increase in consciousness.
© David Walczyk

20. So for us…!
The political economy of new media is about:
(1) the metastable shifting of capitalism
(2) the rise and stabilization of cognitive capitalism
(3) ‘new media’ as the enablers of, and now contributors to, (1) and (2)
(4) The personal and collective effects of (1) - (3)
© David Walczyk

21. END.
© David Walczyk