Psychopathologies Book Launch
Nov. 18 2015, 20:30
The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism II book launch at Pro QM. With W. Neidich, M. Pasquinelli and L. Werner, Nov. 18 – 20:30.
We are currently transitioning from an economic system dominated by artisanal and industrial production to one ruled by information with its emphasis on communication, affect and cognition. Not without controversy, the term cognitive capitalism has been coined to describe these new sets of conditions. The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism: Part Two continues to investigate, quite intensely, such topics as abstract and immaterial labor, informational capital, real and formal subsumption and the social production of surplus value. This volume will begin to give new meaning to the word cognitive, understanding its materialist connotations set in an extended field in which world, brain and mind form an interconnected complex assemblage. Furthermore it employs a developmental point of view utilizing such terms as neural plasticity and epigenesis, in order to understand how cognitive capitalism first establishes dominion over distributions of sensibility and insensibility and then acting as a neuro-modulating force directs the building of the brains neural network architectures which has implications for the freedom of thought and contemplation. In the end this book questions whether 19th century concepts, forms of collectivity and calls to action are up to the task of mounting a formidable challenge to these new normalizing and subsuming apparatuses. Its aim is to formulate a new glossary of terms upon which to build a cognitive activism and dissensus to meet the challenges of the 21st century.