2. Free Labor, Hidden Labor (w/ Tiziana Terranova)

Tiziana Terranova has provided all of us with one of the sharpest critical accounts of the modern internet. In this episode, Tiziana, Roberto, and Marek discuss the labor dynamics at play in the contemporary digital economy -- from changes in the social status of creative work, the hidden labor underpinning the mechanics of the virtual world, and the material means by which AI resists pushes for decentralization.

We reference a few of Tiziana’s texts in the interview, which build foundational scaffolding for theories of what it means to live within networks:

1. Free Labor: Producing Culture of the Digital Economy
2. Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age
3. After the Internet: Digital Networks between Capital and the Common

We further recommend some background information about some of the theorists Tiziana references, including:

1. Tiziana speaks about the Autonomist Marxist tradition beginning in Italy in the 60s, with key exponents like Paolo Virno, Antonio Negri, and Franco “Bifo” Berardi. Virno’s recent The Idea of World: Public Intellect and Use of Life is a great primer for this conversation.
2. Since we speak about Marx’s Grundrisse, David Harvey has quite a good primer on this important but unusual text here.
3. Something that informed Marek’s thoughts in this conversation was an excellent recent episode of Aufhebunga Bunga (number 362 with Cory Doctorow).
4. Tiziana references the work of sociologist Antonio Casilli; we are looking forward to the English translation of Waiting for Robots: An Inquiry Into Digital Labor into English.
5. Denise Ferreira da Silva’s Toward a Global Idea of Race comes up in the context of racialized capitalism.
6. Peter Galison’s War Against the Center is highly recommended as we speak about centralization.
7. In the conversation on reproductive labor, Tiziana references Amelia DeFalco’s work on posthuman care.

Enjoy this fast-paced, dynamic episode as it grapples with the question: will algorithm ever set us free?