From an interview of David Graeber:
I remember having this argument with conventional Marxists about the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Okay, say that capitalism started around 1500. And the Marxists insist that capitalism is organized around wage labor. But wage labor was marginal until the industrial revolution, around 1750. How can you say that wage labor is central to capitalism if, for 250 years, it was a tiny element?
And of course the Marxist will say, “Well you’re not thinking dialectically. From 1500 to 1750, people were in a process that was going to lead to wage labor, they just didn’t realize it yet.” And I realized, wait a minute, if that’s the case, how do we know that we are even in capitalism now? Maybe we are already 100 years into a process leading us to something and we don’t even know what it is. By that logic, capitalism could have ended in like 1950, and we’ll only fully know what replaced it in 2175.This is a really important correction to the default view of social change. I'll fess up that I was thinking with this default until I read the passage. The concept also provides a fun game to play: what future might have already started? Using those approximate time frames, I would say we still have hope for our future to be epheremalization via open-source (by which I really mean free information -- Cp sidebar).
Wikipedia definition:
Ephemeralization, a term coined by R. Buckminster Fuller, is the ability of technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing," that is, an accelerating increase in the efficiency of achieving the same or more output (products, services, information, etc.) while requiring less input (effort, time, resources, etc.)Knowledge, design, and precision can greatly replace resource use. (I'd be remiss to not point out the role of synergy in Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller's vision, but I'd be even more remiss to not point out how much the term has been degraded by being part of corporate-speak).
II)
I have recently put in some effort to deepen my understanding of Bucky's ideas and life. I highly recommend Jonathon Keats's You Belong to the Universe. It is more than an introduction; it is an exploration, starting with a good, quick overview and then exploring one Bucky innovation at a time, connecting it to a wider historical context, current implementations, and possibilities. Furthermore, the book does not shy away from legitimate criticisms. Not only is it the best entry point to Bucky's thought, but it is also the best book on comprehensive design and futurism I can name.
I have also read two books by Bucky himself: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth and Ideas and Integrities. Operating Manuel is readable, but I don't think I can recommend Ideas and Integrities. It is overly repetitive, the pieces vary greatly in quality often degrading into prose like The Architect in the Matrix Reloaded -- where even though you probably understand it, you wonder why anyone would put it in such a way. You Belong to the Universe does much more to instruct and amuse.
Vinay Gupta is a great inheritor of Bucky's dream to make the world work for 100% of people. Start with his story The Unplugged. He also spearheaded a great project called The Future We Deserve.
If we have hope, I think it is to be found here. Naturally, if you were looking to paint a very negative picture of the future, you could find evidence for that having begun already as well. This was me giving a more optimistic scenario, for once. Either way, the seeds for the future have already been planted.
