Digitalism: An Emerging Post-Modern System

It is an interesting but fascinating reality that, the major world system-Capitalism is in crisis as, it have been facing an immerse difficulty in managing and tackling with latest developments on the technological front and it has completely failed to absorb the latest ramifications caused by the disruptive technologies (e.g. AI). On the other hand, in the previous era, two major world systems (Capitalism and Communism) adopted by the nation states whether fully or partially depending on their social and geographical history (Jo, 2011). However, particularly in the second half of 20th century, capitalism is somehow merged with some of the concepts of socialism and termed in the west as “Welfare capitalism”. However, it was in the last decade of 20th century when the communism completely vanished as a world system and capitalism in its different forms emerged as a single remedy for the global economic, social and political issues. Although, Adam smith is considered to be the father of modern capitalism but, actually it was Karl Marx who provided the detailed understanding of how this capitalist system works and how the exploitation of the labor benefits the upper class (e.g. Bourgeoisie). Karl max through his multiple works argues that, the capitalist actually earns money through the surplus value either generated by capital or labor. But, he often mentioned that, it is the socially necessary labor that benefits capitalist the most.

Karl Marx defined capitalism is a system in which, those who controls the means of production controls everything and hence become richer and richer by reinvesting their surplus value(in other words corporate profit) in the manufacturing of bulk products. That chain according to Marx is a vicious cycle in which, the proletariat class always gets the less as, the capitalist gets the bigger chunk of the profit of products and then by reinvesting the same into the system, and it generates even more capital. On the other hand, proletariat just manages to survive and there is no chance for that class to become better because, the capital is mostly in the hands of capitalist class. He further added that, private property and competition, these two factors will force the bourgeoisie to reduce the wages of the proletariat in order to remain solvent and compete with the existing industrial players in the market. Hence, he proposed a new kind of socialist system, which he termed as “Communism” in order to free the proletariat from the vicious circle of misery and poverty and improve the living conditions of them(Saiyar, 2009). Karl Marx was the enthusiastic follower of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in his earlier life, but he rejected the idea of private property and argued that, private property is the foundation of all the problems and it must be eradicated. Karl Marx argued that, communism is the system which is based on the idea of communal property and hence, all the monetary benefit will be shared as per skills and needs of the individual member. He believed that, there must be no democratic or centralized political system to regulate people as there is no need of it, although, he was in favor of evolution of classless society gradually and for that purpose, organization of that society through proletariat lead communist party. Karl Marx eventually indicates that, the change is inevitable as, the forces of production will be changing and the new ones will always challenge old ones and would be replaced by the new ones ultimately(Sayers, 2011). Hence, this article has thus included detailed ideology of Karl Marx as he was the one, who believed that, it is the human labor that made the significant and great change in the economic landscape of the nations and not otherwise.

Indeed, it is also reported that, developing countries are going to get bigger economic chunk than developed countries as seen already in the present, as their GDP would be growing at much faster pace than developed ones (Pwc Report, 2017). In the similar vein, youth bulge will increase in developing countries along with ageing population and this will create the situation in which, more people would be available for work even after their retirement age(depending on individual state) than actually required by the manufacturing or service industry. Hence, this article is going to discuss regarding how, new philosophy like digitalism can be introduced in the world in order to develop sufficient institutional arrangements through which, new realities (e.g. unemployment and ageing) can be immersed without disrupting the global social, economic and political landscape at massive scale.

What is Digitalism?

The two philosophies including capitalism and communism were remained prevalent in the last two centuries but, those both doctrines are going to be obsolete in the future as, the core ideas like capital and commune would no longer be at the central intersection. Hence, the new philosophy namely digitalism is going to be at the center of the social, economic, legal and political landscape of the globe. Digitalism is the philosophy that advocates the digitalization of all the processes and automisation of the entire supply chain and even the social, legal and political processes, which requires human judgment and interaction. The generation and dissemination of data is the core idea of this philosophy as, the data would play a central role in the future decision making of the global society. Hence, the digitalism is based on the basic concept that, the things, people and their immediate environment would interact without the supervision of the human beings and the system would generate the necessary outcome effectively and efficiently and even better than the previous systems like capitalism and communism (all their forms). Therefore, this philosophical belief is that, the digitalization of all the processes and interactions, which usually happens between people to people or people to things and even things to things must be automatize in order to create the society in which, the digital system itself becomes a major stakeholder in the whole scheme of things. However, capital was considered to be a central ingredient in capitalist system, commune in communist system, data would be considered a core and a very fundamental part of digitalism over which, the whole system will be installed.

Economic Aspect of Digitalism

However, when the robots taking over almost all the manual jobs and AI with that intermix replaces cognitive jobs, ultimately there would be more unemployment in the future than its counterpart. Szczepański (2019) hence highlighted that, augmented reality, 3D printing, AI, robots and autonomous vehicles are going to change the shape of the global economic landscape hence, new public policy needed to be developed in order to accommodate the new reality. In that new reality, digital processes would be at the core of the system, hence this paper suggests that, the two new institutions namely world labor employment center (WLEs) and world immigration center (WIs) must be created in order to provide maximum opportunities for all the global population without the limitations of their nationality and border. Moreover, WUIF (World Universal Income Fund) must be developed as similar as IMF (International Monetary Fund) in order to support the unemployed across the globe not through the share of the respective developed countries but also, through all the multinational giant companies, who are going to earn billions of dollars through the automisation of the industrial and service processes and also through productivity gains. In the new global economic landscape, capitalists have to contribute significantly in the employment generation through multiple ways (e.g. skills development training, universal income, scholarships and etc.) in order to balance the equation of investment with consumption.

Social Aspect of Digitalism

It was actually Karl Marx who enthusiastically linked social classes with economic prosperity and highlighted that, one social class (Bourgeoisie) who has been becoming wealthier and wealthier due to the untiring efforts of their counter class (Proletariat). However, it was one more social class that had emerged especially after the second wave of industrialization called “the professional middle class” (Forsyth, 2018). That was the class, which becomes little wealthier than proletariat but, still far below than the bourgeoisie. However, innovation and entrepreneurship (both factors) made fortunes for both the classes (proletariat and middle class) altogether specifically in the second half of 20th century. Interestingly, the social situation and relationship of one person with another with respect to their economic and political affinity have been changing constantly and AI and robots both are going to exacerbate the already deteriorating situation. As per the latest model of capitalism, the major consumers of all the products produced in the world is actually the middle class that is why, consumerism is on the rise since the 1960s era (Koseki, 2023).

In this vein, the role of professional education played a key role in order to alleviate the major world population from the poverty level to the middle and even higher levels of prosperity. But, this all is going to be threaten due to the rapid automation by robots and AI, however, the spread of those two technologies is still concentrated in upper and middle income countries but, they will soon be available abundantly in lower income countries as well. Thereafter, it will challenge the basic foundation of capitalist system as, many of those working for the capitalist firms are not needed or needed for shorter time per day hence, either they would become free forever or even for half a day in order to consume their time/energy somewhere else. Therefore, the income hence generated will also be reduced or even diminished in the process. That will eventually create the vacuum between investment and consumption as, the products produced are needed to be consumed by majority in order to complete the cycle of capitalism. Hence, the new system of digitalism will create the post-modern society in which, most of the folks will not be able to generate money through their own efforts only but, they would need the state support in one form or another in order to remain solvent.

A new social order in the world can only be foreseeable if the political and techno-bourgeoisie comprehend the situation beforehand and develop the pragmatic policies in order to bridge the gap between the ultra-rich and the general population. However, in the case of opposite scenario, the world may again be encountered with the similar situations as at the times of French revolution, communist revolutions across the globe.

Political Aspect of Digitalism

Hence, while the giant companies can have power to manipulate general public, have good approximation to their social, economic and political tendencies through mostly the use of AI, they can use those in their favor and can control subtly all national and global establishments. Hence, it is important to change the basic processes of the democratic system in order to develop the laws, those not only restrict the use of personal data but, also to ensure the transparency in all the social, economic and political decision making. Moreover, if the state apparatus join hands with those giant companies, the state leadership can act as dictators because, they would be able to manage the whole political process through the use of predictive analytics mostly exercised heavily by these big tech companies. Although, Colomina et al., (2021) while conducting their study on disinformation suggested that, states must provide more funding and opportunities (directly or indirectly) to those platforms and multiple actors, engaged in encountering the menace of disinformation. The state should have the tech based analytical tools to assess the kind of dis-information being propagated in the individual society and act accordingly to encounter the obvious challenge. As, the disinformation is global phenomenon as similar to terrorism and human rights, a global discourse, strategy, intuitionalism and legislation are the key to create the balance through which, one may be able to differentiate between what is being posed as true or not true. Subsequently, it had been proved and studied by many scholars in the past that, de-centralization of information and decision making were the two reasons why the system of democracy had been quite successful in the recent past and present. However, those two advantages are partially being under attack due to recent emergence of social media giant companies, multitude of disinformation and AI based predictive analysis. Hence, the current democratic system can be modified through Szellemiism and intellectocracy. The intellectocracy would provide the opportunity to the most experienced, wise and learnt individuals to choose the state and global leadership in order to tackle with the emerging issues of the post-modern society. Szellemiism through its basic emphasis of giving more political rights to intellectuals than to non-intellectuals would provide the opportunity to the most-wise and sound individuals to govern effectively and efficiently not only through the individual states but also to contribute significantly towards global socio-economic and political stability.

Conceptual Framework- Digitalism

The below conceptual framework is based on the ideology of digitalism and how, data can be used as a core instrument to control the social, economic, political and security affairs of the state/global society.

Political Aspect

I

Economic Aspect            Digitalism               Social Aspect

I

Major Elements of Post-Modern Society:

• 1.    Disruptive technologies and robots will change the economic equation of the future society

• 2.    The relationship between the human workforce and the technocapitalist will also undergo significant adjustments

• 3.    A new social contract would be developed describing the role of state, tech-giant corporations and the public

• 4.    Development of World labor employment center (WLEs), World immigration center (WIs) and World Universal Income Fund (WUIF).

• 5.    A pragmatic approach to exercise the tenets of intellectocracy and Szellemiism.

• Figure 1. Major Elements of Post-Modern Society

Conclusion

The article was written in order to understand how the new philosophy termed as “Digitalism" can shape the affairs of the globe in multiple domains including economic, social and political. The paper sheds light on the prevalent dominated philosophies e.g. capitalism and communism. The paper explained that, why digitalism is necessary for the globe because of rapid technological and digital innovations. Hence, at the economic front, there is a chance that, widespread unemployment can happen due to the extensive use of robots, AI and virtual reality (VR). Hence, the two new institutions namely world labor employment center (WLEs) and world immigration center (WIs) could be created in order to provide maximum opportunities for all the global population without the limitations of their nationality and border. Moreover, WUIF (World Universal Income Fund) can be established in order to support the unemployed across the globe not through the share of the respective developed countries but also, through all the multinational giant companies, who are going to earn billions of dollars through the automisation of the industrial and service processes and also through productivity gains. Therefore, this philosophy will push the masses to develop a dynamic social society, where people might not be able to link with each other due to their fixed profession but, a jack of all trades phenomenon is going to prevail. That is why, the three classes, an ultra-rich technocorporate businessmen (techno-bourgeoisie), techno-experts (as similar to nobles in older centuries) and general workers/freelancers (working for multiple industries at the same time) will emerge on the global horizon. Among them, the main stakeholder in the new social system would be techno-giant companies, as those will set the major trends for the post-modern society.

As a consequence of both economic and social happening in future, a new political phenomenon like intellectocracy may come to the global fore and thereby provide an opportunity to the most experienced, wise and learnt individuals to choose the state and global leadership in order to tackle with the emerging issues of the post-modern society. As, intellectocracy through its philosophical lens of Szellemiism, that emphasizes on giving more political rights to intellectuals than to non-intellectuals and thereby allowing the most-wise and sound individuals to govern effectively and efficiently, will not only play a major role statewise but by that means contribute significantly towards the global socio-economic and political stability. Hence, Digitalism through its core “Data” centered approach will create a new postmodern society in which, physical and digital lives would be merged in an inseparable way. For all that to happen amicably, a new social contract at the state and global level is the need of the time and should be worked upon beforehand, the world events force us to do so.

Recommendations

• 1.    Global and national laws are needed to be enacted in order to protect the individual virtual privacy as, that would be under immense attack in the future era

• 2.    New global and national social contract needed to be originated in order to tackle with the global cyber space, security, role of AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual reality) and etc.

• 3.    The role of state and tech-giant corporations in the global system needed to be defined in clear terms in order to create the transparency in the economic, social and political spheres.

• 4.    Individual relationships are heavily dependent upon economic and political hierarchies in the society, hence the social milieu are needed to be adaptable to the rapid technological change in the digital society. Hence, political and social leadership is needed to play their significant role in this regard.

• 5.    The rise in global unemployment can shake the social and economic situation in multiple states hence, the global and national policies are needed to be enacted ahead by foreseeing the worsening situation

• 6.    Global institutions that can maximize the flow of digital information and can protect the global cyber space are needed to be developed.

• 7.    In the previous era, consumers played a central role in developing as well as developed nations in order to keep the momentum going. However, in the current era, the key

role would be shifted towards multinational organizations (especially giant tech companies) and the developed states as, those two stakeholders would be pumping in a lot of resources in order to rotate the current capitalism system.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.