According to Aaron Bastani, 2019, in his manifesto of Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC), it aims to accelerate capitalism’s positive technological progress and curb its negatives (neoliberal globalization) reinvent communism for society. This explains that FALC is a manifesto that suggests the end of capitalism, which marks society’s transition to a more social level and economic model. The end of capitalism is due to the rapid climate change, resource scarcity, the aging of society, and the rapid growth of poverty. Also, the end of capitalism marks the transition to a society of communism and abundance in his model of utopian vision of the combination of science and technology. Ultimately, Aaron Batsani’s concern is climate breakdown. Climate change caused by temperature rises accelerates the global heating and evaporation of glaciers, providing drinking water for humans and fish in oceans.
Technology and science provide an overflow of information that enables humans to move to the realism of overcoming climate change, resource scarcity, the ever-rapid aging and diseases, and the redundancy threatened by automation. To explain the Bastani theory of the transmission from capitalism to FALC, a three-stage model describes human history. To begin with, the implosive stage represents the Neolithic revolution that marks the rise of humanity by the beginning of keeping animals and growing crops by human beings. This comes with a shift from a nomadic life that involves the endless pursuit of the means of survival to a more settled community where human beings could grow their crops. With the settled state of owning their shelters and ability to produce their crops, it is evident that humans moved to more social cooperation.
After this agricultural stage, there comes another stage of modern science, industrialization, and the development of capitalism. At this stage, the society moves to the capitalist location characterized by a rapid, progressive and modernized system. According to Bastani, this is the capitalism stage that is coming to an end with the hopeful vision of overcoming climate change. A combination of technology and science, also called techno-science, liberates the society from the capitalist system formed from the basic foundation of scarcity which cannot cope with the overwhelming information on climate change.
In essence, advancement in science and technology relates to the utopia of the excess, which turns on the possibility that science and technology discoveries provide an abundance of information that could assist society in overcoming climate change. Notably, the availability of large amounts of information allows the delivery of such information on agricultural growth that could protect the environment and impact positive climate change. Therefore, it can be explained that data is manipulative and can transform society from a world of scarcity to abundance that wipes out the capitalist system. The growing research on science and technology will resolve the problem of climate change and the other contradictions in society.
In addition to that, the move to Fully Automated Luxury Communism can be facilitated by techno-science, which overcomes the problem of information scarcity and extreme scarcity in society. The researchers should overcome scarcity by providing unlimited access to information and goods that Bastani recognizes as the tendency of excessive supply. I think innovation and collection of information will lead to the possibility of a shift from the burdening climate changes to a better climate in the world where there will be no adverse effects of climate to human beings. Bastani foresees the end of scarcity altogether; for instance, the technology entirely automates the car system, wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles, and batteries. Hence saves energy and does not pollute the environment through energy and minerals omission that cause climate change. With the automated activities and processes that do not pollute the environment, and the tendency of extreme supply, Bastani indeed foresees luxury communism.
Work Cited
Bastani, Aaron. Fully automated luxury communism. Verso Books, 2019.
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