Algorithm-driven finance prepared the ground for enclosing the early commons-like internet

Evidence

And so it was that, decoupled from the mundane world of physical capital, legitimised by the ideology of neoliberalism, fuelled by a new virtue called ‘greed’, shrouded in the complexity of their computers, financiers reinvented themselves – not without some justification – as masters of the universe. In that universe, where algorithms had already become the financiers’ handmaidens, the original, commons-like, internet stood no chance. New Enclosures were only a matter of time. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 296

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the reader’s existing knowledge of how derivatives markets were constructed (Constructing a Market, Performing Theory) and this book’s earlier Enclosures argument. — connects to: Finance embraced computers because algorithmic complexity hides gambling as innovation — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 294; The early internet was built as a non-capitalist, non-market commons — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 283; The metaverse’s first act reintroduced artificial scarcity to abundant digital goods — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 723 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The early internet was built as a non-capitalist, non-market commons #qualifies (0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 283
• The metaverse’s first act reintroduced artificial scarcity to abundant digital goods #complicates (0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 723
• Speculative technologies function as the grammar of capitalism’s vernacular imagination #expands (0.72)