The Crypto Syllabus recently interviewed the self-described “erratic, inconsistent Marxist”, touching on subjects including Team Fortress 2 hats, NFTs, cryptocurrency, metaverses, and how so much of the current metahype is garbage. Honestly, brew a cuppa and settle down to read the whole thing. It is very interesting. He’s not opposed to the technology (he’s (spoken before about liking the principle of blockchains) but boy howdy he’s not a fan of a lot of what’s going on. I’m going to dump random quotes to entice you into reading it. Yanis on things he learned from his time at Valve: The possibilities of blockchain and play-to-earn games improving life for people in the ‘Global South’: Asking himself if NFTs have “subversive potential”: “Of course, it was good for a young person in Shenzhen who managed to earn $60k a year designing digital hats on his PC – instead of destroying his body in a sweatshop. The question, however, is: Could all workers in Shenzhen (and beyond) be rescued from sweatshops by migrating to a metaverse? The answer is: Not before we have robots working for all of us so that we can reproduce the material conditions of our lives. As long as we do not have these mechanical slaves catering for humanity as a whole (and not just producing commodities owned by the 1% of the 1%), the idea that people must now play like robots to earn a living so as to be human in their spare time is, indeed, the apotheosis of misanthropy.” Objections to cryptocurrency: Oh there’s so much more. I’m glad he’s out here agitating, and glad I get to read it. Do check out the whole interview.
