From Cybernetic Capitalism to Digital Supercapitalism: AI, Data, and the New Political Economy of Computational Power

نوع مقاله : مقاله علمی- پژوهشی

نویسنده

استاد مدعو گروه علوم تربیتی، دانشگاه تیسینگووا، بیجینگ، چین. گروه مدیریت و برنامه ریزی آموزشی، دانشگاه ایلی نویز، آمریکا.

چکیده

The contemporary transformation of capitalism under digital conditions requires a conceptual vocabulary capable of distinguishing its historical phases, operational mechanisms, and geopolitical consequences. This paper proposes a three-stage theoretical framework: cybernetic capitalism, algorithmic capitalism, and digital supercapitalism. These concepts do not function as interchangeable descriptors of a generalized digital economy; rather, they represent historically successive yet overlapping formations in the evolution of informational capitalism. Cybernetic capitalism identifies the transition from industrial production to knowledge-based systems structured by feedback, control, and communication—exemplified by early computing, systems engineering, and organizational cybernetics from the mid-twentieth century. Algorithmic capitalism marks the intensification of this logic through autonomous computational systems capable of real-time prediction, optimization, and governance, as seen in platform economies, high-frequency trading, and data-driven management. Digital supercapitalism names the most recent phase, characterized by planetary-scale data extraction, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and the concentration of computational power in trillion-dollar technology corporations and sovereign AI states. Unlike prior phases, digital supercapitalism generates new forms of value capture through foundation models, cloud empires, and geopolitical rivalries over semiconductor supply chains and compute sovereignty. Together, these concepts illuminate the changing political economy of knowledge, labor, and technological power in the age of AI, offering a critical lens for analyzing contemporary monopolies, labor precarity, and the reconfiguration of state–market relations under accelerating automation.

چکیده تصویری

From Cybernetic Capitalism to Digital Supercapitalism: AI, Data, and the New Political Economy of Computational Power

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات

عنوان مقاله [English]

From Cybernetic Capitalism to Digital Supercapitalism: AI, Data, and the New Political Economy of Computational Power

نویسنده [English]

  • Michael Peters
Visting Distinguised Professor, School of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA. Philosophy Program, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
چکیده [English]

The contemporary transformation of capitalism under digital conditions requires a conceptual vocabulary capable of distinguishing its historical phases, operational mechanisms, and geopolitical consequences. This paper proposes a three-stage theoretical framework: cybernetic capitalism, algorithmic capitalism, and digital supercapitalism. These concepts do not function as interchangeable descriptors of a generalized digital economy; rather, they represent historically successive yet overlapping formations in the evolution of informational capitalism. Cybernetic capitalism identifies the transition from industrial production to knowledge-based systems structured by feedback, control, and communication—exemplified by early computing, systems engineering, and organizational cybernetics from the mid-twentieth century. Algorithmic capitalism marks the intensification of this logic through autonomous computational systems capable of real-time prediction, optimization, and governance, as seen in platform economies, high-frequency trading, and data-driven management. Digital supercapitalism names the most recent phase, characterized by planetary-scale data extraction, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and the concentration of computational power in trillion-dollar technology corporations and sovereign AI states. Unlike prior phases, digital supercapitalism generates new forms of value capture through foundation models, cloud empires, and geopolitical rivalries over semiconductor supply chains and compute sovereignty. Together, these concepts illuminate the changing political economy of knowledge, labor, and technological power in the age of AI, offering a critical lens for analyzing contemporary monopolies, labor precarity, and the reconfiguration of state–market relations under accelerating automation.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Cybernetic Capitalism
  • Algorithmic Capitalism
  • Digital Supercapitalism
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Informational Capitalism
  • Cognitive Capitalism
  • Digital Political Economy

مراجع

O'Sullivan, J. (2025). The politics of superintelligence. Noema Magazine. https://www.noemamag.com/the-politics-of-superintelligence/
Peters, M. A. (2012). Education, science and knowledge capitalism: Creativity and the promise of openness. Peter Lang.
Peters, M. A. (2014). Knowledge in the circuits of cybernetic capitalism. In P. Gibbs, O.-H. Ylijoki, C. Guzmán-Valenzuela, & R. Barnett (Eds.), Universities in the flux of time: An exploration of time and temporality in university life. Routledge.
Peters, M. A. (2015). The university in the epoch of digital reason: Fast knowledge in the circuits of cybernetic capitalism. Analysis and Metaphysics, 14, 38–58.
Peters, M. A. (2016). Inside the global teaching machine: MOOCs, academic labour and the future of the university. Learning and Teaching, 9(2), 66–88. https://doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2016.090204
Peters, M. A. (2017). Algorithmic capitalism in the epoch of digital reason. Fast Capitalism, 14(1), Article 16. https://doi.org/10.32855/1930-014X.1320
Peters, M. A. (2021). A post-Marxist reading of the knowledge economy: Open knowledge production, cognitive capitalism, and knowledge socialism. Analysis and Metaphysics, 21, 7–23.
Peters, M. A., & Besley, T. (2019). Critical philosophy of the postdigital. Review of Contemporary Philosophy, 18, 64–79.
Peters, M. A., Britez, R., & Bulut, E. (2009). Cybernetic capitalism, informationalism and cognitive labor. Geopolitics, History and International Relations, 1(2), 11–40.
Peters, M. A., & Bulut, E. (Eds.). (2011). Cognitive capitalism, education and digital labor. Peter Lang.
Peters, M. A., & Jandrić, P. (2015). Review of Contemporary Philosophy, 14, 182–198.
Peters, M. A., & Neilson, D. (2019). New histories of capitalism: From delineation to critique. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51(14), 1399–1407. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2019.1585227
Peters, M. A. (2025). Digital supercapitalism, AI and the knowledge economy: Data-driven geopolitics and the rise of the trillion-dollar big tech company. Geopolitics, History, and International Relations, 17(2), 9–28. https://doi.org/10.22381/GHIR17220251
Peters, M. A., & Besley, T. (2018). Critical philosophy of the postdigital. Postdigital Science and Education, 1(1), 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-018-0004-9
Thompson, H. A. (2025). Some economics of artificial super intelligence (arXiv:2511.06613v1). arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06613
Zhao, W., & Peters, M. A. (2019). 'Intelligent capitalism' and the disappearance of labour: Whitherto education? In Marxism, neoliberalism, and intelligent capitalism: An educational philosophy and theory reader (Vol. XII). Routledge.
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مجله پژوهش های فلسفی
دوره 20، شماره 56 - شماره پیاپی 56
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