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This week, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau take aim at two prevailing orthodoxies. Is the explosive AI boom really a bubble, or is the technology itself forcing a non-reversible shift away from capitalism and toward a new age of Techno-Feudalism? And are Trump’s orders to sink Venezuelan boats and kill sailors really about a “War on Drugs,” or is that just a cynical cover story when what the administration really want from Venezuela is oil? And if the term “war crime” is wrong, should these acts be called something far more chilling: extrajudicial murder?
Interesting analysis by Varifocus using his Marxist arguments to examine AI and Venezuela boats. I played it back at 0.5 speed but still did not get what he said about Marxism: ” socialising the means of production, communication and <lep change> >” Any ideas ?
Varoufakis is a trekkie ! And used a good Ferengi example.
The Wolfgang has called time on fiat currency, and European countries “are obsessed with their sad reality”
Truly addictive. But what happens when AI replaces journalists including V & M and can write stuff like this ? … or was I watching a couple of bots ?
For god’s sake Yanis, please let WM talk! At least on the topic he has picked! You hogged both conversations, to the detriment of the overall quality of the debate.
Its OK. The Wolfgang uses far fewer words
I really enjoyed the conversation about AI’s possible effects on education.
Yeah, my sense is trying to prevent students using AI is a losing battle, so figure out how to harness it to improve education (worth an Econoclasts episode by itself).
And maybe, maybe AI is what will finally break the “progressive” stranglehold on the academy, although, of course, I suppose AI can be taught to introduce a “progressive” perspective into its lessons. I remember my university classes. Many were too big and impersonal, and many were taught by uninspiring teachers. I didn’t have a motivation problem; if I’d had the option of long-distance learning with AI, that’s what I’d have done.
Yep. I think your AI take is correct. Let’s hope it turns education upside down.
Interoperability simply means re-defining social media as “publishers” which they are in the moral sense, and their punters as “Subscribers” and yes you can transfer subscribers as Bauer did when it bought Practical Classics magazine. Some will stay and some leave. Doesn’t matter much here thoughPC is a bit student lefty now…funny considering lefties want to make cars illegal for non party members. Does matter with the hate sites like Facebook or X. If they were classified as publishers we’d need a whole new prison estate to hold their staff from bosses to lackeys
Yanis chucking his lot in with narco gangs? Might not be so clever long term. Leaders from Trump through Subianto to Xi may want to talk to him.
Neither of you mentioned the 100,000 Americans who die every year from drug overdoses, much of it from foreign manufacture and distribution. The combined total to date is greater than all the wars the US has fought over the centuries. Is it not hypocrisy to not figure this toll into your calculations about the Trump administration efforts to reduce the trade, which in the case of fentanyl has its origins in China?
Why is “extrajudicial murder” far more chilling than “war crime”? War crimes are murder.