Big Tech firms dominate the global economy. But what value do they actually produce? In this
brilliant survey of global tech economy Nick Dyer-Witheford and Alessandra Mularoni argue that
the role of firms like Amazon and Google Palantir and Uber is in the automation of
circulation. By applying digital technologies to processes of market exchange—everything from
advertising and shopping to logistics and financial services—Big Tech aims to subject these
activities to the level of control and predictability that capital has secured in industrial
production. But there is a way out of the multiple crises that Big Tech has helped
precipitate. If we are to break their grip on the global economy then it’ll take more than just
antitrust legislation or reducing individual time online. By understanding the central role Big
Tech plays in contemporary capitalism Dyer-Witheford and Mularoni argue that what is required
instead is a new ambitious and comprehensive program of democratic collective planning that
can move us beyond capitalism. Cybernetic Circulation Complex offers not only a compelling
analysis of the power of Big Tech and their role in our current global crises but a roadmap
for a new form of life: biocommunism a digital degrowth that can help us steer between the
double boundaries of ecological sustainability and equitable social development.
