Technocapitalism

Technocapitalism (a portmanteau word combining "technology" and "capitalism," two of the most commonly used words in the social sciences) is a term used to describe the changes in capitalism brought about by the emergence of high technology sectors in the economy.

Luis Suarez-Villa, in his 2000 book "Invention and Rise of Technocapitalism" argues that it is a form of capitalism in which "intangibles" such as creativity and new knowledge play the parts that raw materials, factory labor and capital played under industrial capitalism. His book argues that sectors such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum computing and bioinformatics, will become fundamental agents of economic change in the 21st century the way electricity, the internal combustion engine, mass production and other technologies of industrial capitalism were to the 20th century.

Dinesh D'Souza, writing about Silicon Valley, uses the term to describe the corporate environment and venture capital relationships of the high tech economy. Technocapitalism is a term also used by philosopher Douglas Kellner in an examination of trends in production from the perspective of the Frankfurt School, to describe the use of technology and its social relationships.

Technocapitalism also deals with the argument that capitalism affects the development of technology, driving it towards profitable directions only.

See also

* Crypto-anarchism
* Knowledge economy

External links

* [http://www.technocapitalism.com Prof. Suarez-Villa's website on the rise of technocapitalism]