Living Breathing Commodities

As most of you are probably aware, a number of scientists in partnership with the pharmaceutical company Novartis, and the great philanthropists and contributors to human well being known as Exxon Mobil, have created the worlds very first, self-replicating, artificial life form.

Using artificial DNA and a "blank" living cell they created a bacteria that has no living ancestor. While the importance of these discoveries is always hard to gage at the time of their inception, it has already been described as a technological breakthrough akin to splitting the atom. Here is an article from the economist that explains the discovery in some detail.

Ignoring the quite profound metaphysical implications a discovery of this nature possess (metaphysics is boring), the potential impact to society this technology represents is immense.

Additionally, as the advancement of bio-technology involves the creation of physical things, rather than the circulation of ideas/information, I believe that bio-technology has a greater potential to truly change the means of production and their accompanying social relations, than the Internet or other forms of information technology currently so much in vogue. If the hype is true, and it very well may not be, the creative/destructive potential of truly synthetic biology is staggering.

Ridiculously, the biggest fear I have regarding this discovery is its potential capacity for surplus absorption. Biological technology is capitalism's current best bet against a falling profit rate. With the potential for new markets, products, and profit generating enterprises represented by bio-technology enormous.

The patent application for the bacteria is already underway, and it seems obvious given who is funding the research, that the goal is not overall human well being but private profit and market creation. My absurd prediction is that in 15 years, we will discuss the deflating of the Bio-Tech bubble much the same way we currently discuss the Dot-com bubble or the Housing bubble.

In short, while amazing, a discovery of this nature provides further evidence of our need to organize, and work to wards a society where new technology is used to meet human need and not just further capitalist accumulation.

More Talk about the Debt Crisis in Greece

Here is a blog post concerning the ongoing debt crisis in Greece, that everyone should read.

http://geostadia.blogspot.com/2010/03/greek-tragedy-of-olympic-proportions.html

In the current book that I am reading, Fredric Jameson argues that a key element of the current economic system (post-modernity/ late capitalism) is the primacy of the spacial over the temporal. The speed of communication, and the immense liquidity of the banking sector combine to erase time as a factor of analysis. In this sense history becomes meaningless with the only thing of any importance the further advancement of technological progress and capitalist growth. This is both a function of the current means of production ( re: economic structure) and an ideological construct designed to reproduce the social relations that currently allow capitalism to exist.

"Capitalism itself lives in a perpetual present; the human past seems to be a senseless accumulation of unsuccessful human efforts and intentions; yet the future of technology inspires blind and unshakable faith."(Jameson, 2009)

By eliminating our sense of history, we loose the ability to analyze problems in the world. We have nothing to compare them to, and no ability to connect the causes of the worlds problems with their effects.

The current situation in Greece provides a remarkable example of the ideological power of this concept at work. Six years ago, the Greek government was spending hand over fist to build Olympic venues that now sit empty. That same government is now being forced to cut social programs and decimate its public service to pay interest payments and keep the wheels of the global capital markets turning. Yet this analysis is nowhere to be found in even relatively intelligent media, instead the focus is on now,

How much profit was generate building those Olympic venues, and how much is currently being generated on interest payments and the short selling of Greek government debt. The same companies that encouraged the spectacular waste, and easily flow of money required to stage the Olympics, are now once again profiting from the increased interest rates thrust upon the Greek government. All of this represents a flow of resources away from public and towards private interests.

The borrowing for the 2004 Olympics in Athens represents about 10% of the total national debt in Greece. This represents billions of dollars of annual debt servicing payments (actually somewhere between 2-7 billion dollars per year depending on the term). Money the Greek people must now pay back, and that could be used to do productive/helpful things for society.

We tend to think of government debt the same way we think of personal debt. This is a mistake. Government debt is not a question of living beyond our means but rather the ultimate form of fictitious capital and speculation. It is quite literally money created out of nothing, its only "value" based only on the prospects it creates for future growth. Problems of government debt are problems of the structure of the world economy, global trade imbalances, and falling profit rates, not a problem of governments spending to much.

As the crisis in Greece spreads around the world, and the losses of the rich are increasingly visited on regular people. We must work to develop a sense of history and analytical prowess to see event as the are. It is not working people who must pay for the excesses and poor decisions of the wealthy and influential, although this is what is happening. Rather those in power who made the decisions should suffer the consequences of their actions.