The Ownership of the Means of Thought: Technology, Post-Politics, and the Government of Nobody

Abstract

This article is a translation of a piece by the philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Matthew Crawford, author of bestsellers such as Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, as well as widely discussed books including The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction and Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road. Crawford describes the power of those who control computational infrastructures and cloud services, on which most institutions of everyday life depend: banks, hospitals, governments, and so on. He also examines the growing conversion of material goods into services subject to subscription models and unilateral terms of service. This technical infrastructure imposes conditions that shift power away from governments and politics and toward those who own it. This leads to a “government of Nobody”; in other words, to postpolitics.