How Silicon Valley Unleashed Techno-feudalism

The promise of the ‘new economy’ gone, we have regressed into the age of techno-feudalism

The rise of the IT industry in the nineties promised a new era of freedom and prosperity. It didn’t deliver. Today, algorithms are everywhere, but digital monopolies push us towards the feudal logic of rent, dispossession, and personal domination. How Silicon Valley Unleashed Techno-feudalism tears apart the Silicon Valley consensus to reveal the new economic order, in which capital has abandoned production to focus on predation.

The description and cover above are taken from the Paperback (2025) edition. Other editions may vary.

Cédric Durand is Professor of political economy at the University of Geneva and the author of several books, including Fictitious Capital: How Finance is Appropriating our Future and How Silicon Valley Unleashed Techno-Feudalism: The Making of the Digital Economy. He regularly contributes to the New Left Review.