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   Nathan Schneider (ntnsndr@social.coop)'s status on Friday, 02-Feb-2024 06:24:35 JST Nathan Schneider

   • Richard Littauer

   @richlitt oh, and I forgot to say! On your point about how the internet is not inhabited space and thus "homesteading" is not relevant!

   I would say it is. The internet (to the extent it is useful) fills our attention, our relationships, the data exhaust of our lives, our public discourse, etc. So while it seems to be "a land without people" it actually always is a means of colonizing existing people and commons through commodification and surveillance.

   • Embed this notice
     Nathan Schneider (ntnsndr@social.coop)'s status on Friday, 02-Feb-2024 08:35:33 JST Nathan Schneider

     in reply to

     • Richard Littauer

     @richlitt Totally, it is not *land*. But enclosing digital space does operate similarly as what Marx called "primitive accumulation" (in speaking of land colonization)—turning non-commodities into private commodities. Although the substance at hand is different—land vs. data—the economic function is analogous if not significantly overlapping.

   • Embed this notice
     Richard Littauer (richlitt@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 02-Feb-2024 08:35:34 JST Richard Littauer

     in reply to

     @ntnsndr I hear that! The difference is the lack of the original custodians of the land.

     I agree that, as another way of demanding attention, it continues to be a tool of colonialization. I just argue that it is another tool itself, not an incursion on native land.

   • Embed this notice
     Nathan Schneider (ntnsndr@social.coop)'s status on Friday, 02-Feb-2024 08:36:11 JST Nathan Schneider

     in reply to

     • Richard Littauer

     @richlitt Cf. my favorite book of medieval media studies: https://archive.org/details/cyberpunkhandboo0000stju