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From the Boundaries of Property to the Horizon of the Commons: We Summon a New Human, Homo Commonans!
Comrades, friends, architects of the future;
Capitalism is conducting the greatest dispossession operation in history through artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems. That immense "General Intellect" heralded by Marx in the Grundrisse—that is, the historical and collective knowledge accumulation of humanity—is being enclosed today by the monopolies of Silicon Valley with digital fences. Technology, which ought to be a lever to liberate humans from mandatory labor, is instead being transformed into a "digital whip" that disciplines labor and the mind.
Yet, the dialectic is at work: this colossal internal contradiction of the system is triggering the birth pangs of a new world and the new human who will build it.
The text titled "The Dawn of Homo Commonans: Digital Commons and the Organic Intellectual Roadmap" published on our Knowledge Commons (Bilgi Müşterekleri) platform, is not just a philosophical objection to this technological domination of the system, but also a political plan of attack.
We declare that the era of Homo Economicus, poisoned by greed for competition and property, has come to a close. On the horizon is Homo Commonans (The Commoning Human), who will sever knowledge, data, and life from property relations and reproduce them on the basis of "the commons." For Homo Commonans, true wealth is not capital accumulated in stock markets, but free time liberated from exploitation and social solidarity itself.
So, who will build the bridge for this transition from the proprietary structure to this new humanity?
With a nod to Gramsci, we emphasize: today's tech worker is not merely an isolated, "privileged white-collar" individual coding in front of a screen. They are the "organic intellectual" of this era, positioned at the very heart of the production process and experiencing the class character of technology firsthand!
The historical duty of the tech worker as an organic intellectual is to question whom the algorithms they write serve, to translate complex technological processes into a language their class siblings can understand, and to carry to the masses the realization that technology is not a "destiny" but a political "choice." The 4-step roadmap presented in our article describes precisely the practical steps of this revolutionary transformation:
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Revolution of Consciousness: The transition from the illusion of the artisan to the class subject.
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Defense of the Technological Commons: "Commons licensing" and the radicalization of open-source against intellectual property that imprisons knowledge.
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Conservation of Labor: Returning technological productivity to the worker as free time under the slogan "A 4-hour workday thanks to AI!", rather than to the boss as profit.
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Algorithmic Democracy: Reconceptualizing the management of production processes through decentralized, collective, and pro-worker structures.
A Call for Commoning and Action:
Comrades; we must bring philosophy down from the heavens to the earth, and data and code from corporate vaults to the commons of the people. This text is not a finished dogma, but an outline for action that will take flesh and bone only through your mental and practical labor.
I call upon all philosophers, software developers, academics, trade unionists, and class revolutionaries to expand this debate. Come, let us transform bilgimusterekleri.org into a laboratory, a thought barricade where we build the human of the future. Contribute to this platform with your articles, your criticisms, your code, and your ideas.
Remember; if a new digital era is to be built, its architects will not be algorithmic monopolies, but us, rising to our feet with our collective intellect!
Read the article, reproduce it, criticize it, and lend your shoulder.
May our code be freedom, and our way be the commons!
You can contact us for your contributions, criticisms, and suggestions.