The Ecology of Trust Mechanization
La ecología de la mecanización de la confianza

The last decade's developments in computation are major topics of debate among business, policymakers, and social movements alike. Blockchain, Bitcoin, smart contracts, the Internet of Things, machine translation, image recognition, the Earth Bank of Codes, artificial intellligence – all are understood to be not only business opportunities but also political and environmental issues.

Seldom mentioned, however, is the extent to which these innovations are part of an ecological history that goes back to the early 19th century and before. A strategic understanding their dynamics and contradictions requires looking with new eyes at old pictures of labour, mechanization, commons, and capital accumulation.

Available upon request to The Corner House are three powerpoint presentations, one in English and two in Spanish, that outline some of the issues involved in this 21st-century wave of the mechanization of interpretation and trust.

A Spanish-language transcript of one of the presentations is available at
https://www.naturalezaconderechos.org/2019/09/02/segundo-dialogo-sobre-d....

A longer companion piece paper, available in Spanish and English, is available on request from The Corner House. A shorter piece recently published in the journal Development can be found here: https://rdcu.be/bRQtQ. A later piece published in the Socialist Register is at http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/resource/interpretation-machines.