TU Wien DIGHUM

Digital Humanism Salon: Capital and the computer by Lachlan Kermode

"Lachlan Kermode talks about the relation between capital and computers."

Speakers: Lachlan Kermode (Brown University and Forensic Architecture), Moderator: Hannes Werthner (TU Wien, Austria)
Speakers: Lachlan Kermode (Brown University and Forensic Architecture), Moderator: Hannes Werthner (TU Wien, Austria)

About the Event

The event took place on June 24, 2024.

Abstract

In the next half hour, I seek to impress three points upon you:

  • The computer is another version of Marx’s machine
  • Capital mystifies the distinction between human and machine
  • The contemporary hysteria of A.(G.)I. should be treated by attending closely to these two points.

More generally, this talk will present the basis of a relation between the two structures that thread these points together, capital and the computer. Each of these logical structures has an intimate and important relationship to an actual practice, history, and politics. Actually existing capitalism is the analogue of capital, and the material manifestations of electronic computing in the 20th and 21st century are the equivalent analogue of the computer. By thinking in structural terms, that is, according to logical entities which map to historical forms and cultures, but which are not strictly reducible to them, I propose we can understand the entangled nature of computing and capitalism more thoroughly.

Slides

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Video

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Digital Humanism Salon: Capital and the computer by Lachlan Kermode
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8O95JBYdnoQ