ok, then, what is capitalism?

[Light Touch]

Capitalism is the production, delivery, and consumption of goods with no (or little) active guidance. The only guidance comes from passive factors, such as supply of goods, demand for goods, and the relative cost of the production, delivery, and consumption thereof.

Capitalism has never caused a war. Some capitalists have used existing power structures to maximize their gain through the use of improper war, but I'd blame the power structure (or the access thereto) before I'd blame capitalism.

 

[vimothy]

*bumps interesting thread*

borderpolice's comments = suprisingly good

 

[noel emits]

Yeah definitely looks interesting, will give it a read when I have more time.

Side note: that's not the same Jason H that did that Calenda record is it?

 

[version]

A nice, neat explanation of Land referring to it as an AI.

Land doesn't argue that capitalism is conscious, but says "It is indistinguishable from intelligence." It adapts to new scenarios perfectly, it utilizes governments and international crises to spread itself to new markets, and it employs error-correction mechanisms to fix any glitches that may arise. This is why Land says that capitalism is an AI - it is an emergent form of intelligence that went from a mechanism to make some people richer to a thinking process that employs most of the working-age population of the world as processing units.

Teleoplexy, as Land describes it, is the teleological "closed loop" that this presents us. Now when we ask for a teleology of capitalism, the answer is paradoxical. Asking "what's the point of capitalism" is like asking a von Neumann probe why it's building another von Neumann probe. It is a tool which people, corporations, and governments use to develop and accumulate more capital, but it is also an actor which uses people, corporations, and governments to expand itself to new places. It is all at once the actor, the means and the ends.