The Religion of Digital Capitalism

Information capitalism, data capitalism, platform capitalism, surveillance capitalism, cognitive capitalism – these are some of the colourful terms used to describe contemporary manifestations of capitalism in the digital age. What unites them is that they all relate to an economic system based on datafication, data extraction and data accumulation. As a product, data is becoming something of a religious cult complete with promises of redemption and apocalyptic scenarios. It is even attributed magical powers.

Much has been said about the religious aspect of capitalism. Karl Marx spoke of commodity fetishism; Max Weber emphasised the Protestant roots of capitalism with its cult of labour. Walter Benjamin considered capitalism itself a secular religion.

The Californian ideology and its credo of solutionism – the idea that societal and all other problems can be solved by the widespread use of data, algorithms and engineers – have conquered the world. In this sense, a new spirit of capitalism is being propagated that revolves around the “project”, creativity and the ceaseless production of new information. Is “information” the manna of digital capitalism? And what exactly does the societal, informational religion of digital capitalism look like?

At this event, Timo Daum (author of Das Kapital sind wir. Zur Kritik der digitalen Ökonomie) and Robert Feustel (author of “Am Anfang war die Information”. Digitalisierung als Religion) will trace the quasi religious cult around the digital, examine its historical, philosophical and informational prehistory and attempt to shed some light into the digital darkness.