Capitalism is always restructuring itself. We all know this, and it is why analyzing and creating proposals for struggle is an ongoing process, never something that can be fully concluded. So in a sense, change is the only constant: a comforting story for a world that is often disorienting. And yet, capitalism, as simultaneously an economic and technological system, goes through phases that might last more or less long and that create a sense of stability within them: the more things change, the more they stay the same (again, as we are told).

In this moment, Summer 2026, it seems we are on the cusp of a new technological and economic phase. The economic and political systems have thrown their weight into developing a specific technology even more dramatically than for the expansion of the internet around the turn of the millenium. And unlike the early internet, this technology is highly centralized in the hands of billionaires, with no liberatory potential to speak of (although time has not been on the side of those who saw the internet as a force for freedom thirty years ago). And like all high technologies, it comes with a whole web of industrial, extractive, and financial projects, because, if you will allow us one more tired proverb, misery loves company. Read More …