From Information Extraction to Remaining Data—The Production Mystery of Digital Capitalism ^†

Abstract

Capitalism has shifted to the stage of digital capitalism with the use of digital technology, bringing new changes such as the spread of digital labor, the prominence of data value, the construction of digital platforms, and the formation of digital capital, but this transformation of capitalism in the digital era is only in the form of peripheral expression, and the nature of the capitalist private system and the pursuit of surplus value have not changed. The way in which capitalism gains profit in the digital era is mainly information extraction, converting self-made information into surplus data to make profit. The self-made information generated by the subject becomes a tool for capital to make profit. In order to promote the healthy development of digital productivity, it is necessary to use technological development for the people, so that digital technology can be used again to meet people’s needs for a better life and promote human liberation.

1. Introduction

The surge of technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things is driving human society towards an intelligent digital world. As a leading force in the world’s technological revolution and industrial transformation, digital technology is increasingly integrated into the entire process of economic and social development, profoundly changing production methods and lifestyles. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China once again emphasizes the acceleration of the construction of a strong online country and a digital China, promoting the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy and the building of a modern infrastructure system. Building a digital China and developing the digital economy require correct guidance for direction. Western capitalist countries have turned to digital capitalism through digital technology, resulting in new production processes and organizational methods, but this has also triggered the most distinctive digital society problems of our time. Since Dan Schiller first proposed the concept of digital capitalism in 1999 more than 20 years ago, research on digital capitalism has developed. Therefore, in the context of digital technology’s development as an important driving force for national industrial upgrading, clarifying the logical mechanism of digital capitalism’s operation during the past 20 years and revealing its unchanging core can help us to not only expand the cognitive research of contemporary capitalism but also help to promote strengths and avoid weaknesses, promoting the healthy development of socialist digital productivity.

2. Changes in the Production Process of Digital Capitalism

Digital platforms such as Twitter, Weibo, Amazon, and Google are already important infrastructures in digital society. People rely on these private platforms to complete online work, engage in social interactions, and engage in activities such as transactional entertainment. The capitalist production process has mainly undergone changes in the digital age in the following aspects: Firstly, we have witnessed the emergence and development of a new form of capitalism. As the latest form of capitalism, digital capitalism, compared to industrial capitalism, is characterized by digital technology’s development as a representative example of advanced capitalist productivity, greatly changing the production mode and social and political system of capitalism. The rapid development of digital communication technology is a prerequisite for the formation of digital capitalism and is also an important guarantee enabling digital capitalism to continue to obtain surplus value. The birth and evolution of digital technology has enabled the new capitalism to progress from the traditional industrial production model in a dynamic form. Secondly, with the popularization and alienation of new forms of labor, the updating and iteration of digital technology has greatly expanded the connotations of labor. As a new form of labor, digital labor is an important source of value creation in the digital age. The basic forms of digital labor are divided into material labor, “immaterial labor”, and a mixed form of the two. Thirdly, the manifestation and exploration of new value content. In fact, people already used data resources for productive activities earlier, but the value of data has not been given due attention. Until the era of digital capitalism arrived, data extraction methods were more convenient and diverse, and data was widely used in fields such as production process optimization, consumer preference analysis, and systematic employee management [1]. The high flow of data can drive market recovery, leading to drastic changes and comprehensive upgrades in the labor market. In capitalist systems, based on digital platforms, powerful data storage and digital algorithms are fully utilized to achieve the effective prediction of production and investment directions and the timely control of capital operation processes. This avoids the oversight and lag caused by the limited carrying of information and unlimited expansion of desires of the market, making resource allocation more reasonable. The production mode is more efficient and better ensures the “thrilling leap” of goods. Fourthly, with the construction and lease of new interactive intermediaries, digital platforms are a new medium for people to interact in the digital age, serving as a centralized location for various digital users such as suppliers, consumers, investors, and advertisers in the cyberspace. They are also the main venues used by digital platform owners to collect and extract data. Nick Srnicek views digital platforms as digital infrastructures that enable interaction between two or more groups, serving as intermediaries that bring different users together. Platforms are divided into five types: advertising platforms, cloud platforms, industrial platforms, product platforms, and lean platforms [2] (pp. 50–56). As digital platforms become social interaction intermediaries and infrastructure, they also bring a new type of leasing relationship, where digital users and physical enterprises pay rent to digital platforms in different ways. Fifth, with the emergence and monopoly of new types of capital, capital will undergo deformation with the development of production methods and with the times. In the era of digital technology and capitalism, the form of capital has developed to the stage of digital capital. This more pure and refined form of capital, compared to industrial capital, is a new product of the development of digital technology. Digital capital includes not only tangible forms of capital, such as digital infrastructure, stored data, advanced digital technology, and high-tech workers, but also intangible forms of capital, such as the ability to continuously obtain data, innovate technology, cultivate digital talent, and update digital content. At the same time, giant digital platforms are monopolizing the competition in the digital industry market by controlling advanced digital technology and vast amounts of data in order to achieve the goal of maximizing profits. The basic characteristics of monopolistic enterprises in the digital age are their broad platform influence, strong financial reserves, and large user base.

3. The Division of the Field of World Existence and Self-Made Information

The widespread application of digital technology has greatly promoted the development of productivity and social progress; however, the rise of digital capitalism is not a disruptive breakthrough in history but also a paradigm of repackaging and replicating history. Capitalism, in the digital era, changes only in its peripheral manifestations, the nature of the capitalist private system and the pursuit of surplus value has not changed. The main way in which capitalism earns profits in the digital age is through information extraction, converting self-owned information into surplus data for profit. The division of the realm of world existence is an important prerequisite for grasping how capitalism gains profits. The scientific community regards quality, energy, and information as the three fundamental elements that make up all things. On the philosophical level, both quality and energy belong to the category of matter; thus, matter and information constitute the basic forms of world existence. With the development of the information revolution and the clarification of information concepts, an indirectly existing information world corresponding to the directly existing material world is revealed. The concept of “information philosophy” was proposed over forty years ago and has become a focal topic of research worldwide in the past decade, attracting increasing scholarly attention and participation. Wu Kun summarized the starting point of information philosophy research in a general manner: It regards information as a universal form of existence, a metaphilosophy or supreme philosophy formed after the philosophical generalization of the specific theoretical achievements of modern information science, being different from other philosophies. Information philosophy re-divides the existence field of traditional philosophy and constructs an indirect existence field, which is also the logical starting point of information philosophy research. Professor Wu Kun is a pioneering expert in information philosophy research in China. The concept of information was introduced into philosophy as one of the most basic categories of philosophy, and information ontology, information epistemology, social information theory, information evolution theory, and information axiology were established, known as “pioneers of information philosophy”. Professor Wu Kun’s re-division of the field of existence laid the logical foundation for the study of information philosophy. The world is unified on a material foundation, a world where both the material world and information exist [3] (p. 39). Information philosophy posits that information is a form of existence that is parallel to matter. Traditional philosophy divides the entire world into two major fields: existence = material and spirit, where “material = objective reality = reality = direct existence” and “spirit” are equivalent to subjective unreality. However, information philosophy posits that not all objective things are real; for example, the moon observed in the water is objective but not real. This objective and unrealistic status is the specific encoding structure of the content reflected by things. The philosophy of information combines objective unreality with subjective unreality, which is called indirect existence, and this indirect existence is information.

The Chinese information philosophy founded by Wu Kun proposes a systematic theory of the dual existence of matter and information. Information includes two major fields: objective information and subjective information, and the spiritual world of higher animals and humans is precisely subjective information, which is an advanced form of the information world. Information philosophy distinguishes information into three basic forms: free information (objective information), self information (information perceived and memorized by the subject), regenerative information (information created through the subject’s thinking), and a comprehensive form (social information, a cultural world created by humans). Since matter and information are the two fundamental domains that make up the world, all other things and phenomena should belong to these two domains. The knowledge, emotions, consciousness, intelligence, etc., that people usually refer to belong to the category of spiritual phenomena and should also be included in the information world, rather than being detached from it. Wu Kun believes that data represent the state, attributes, and feature information of objects obtained by people through perception (observation and experimentation), existing in the form of self information. People can only carry out their thinking process by processing the relevant data they grasp. It is precisely data information that provides the foundation of information elements for human thinking activities.

4. Conclusions

In the digital age, everything can be digitized. On the one hand, digital capitalists collect and calculate people’s actual activity trajectories and lifestyle habits through various monitors and big data technologies to predict people’s consumption preferences. On the other hand, any behavior of digital users in the cyberspace will leave indelible traces of information, and a casual click and browse will generate a large amount of data, namely self information. However, the self information generated by the subject cannot fully bring profits and value to digital capitalists. After the self information collected by digital platforms is filtered, classified, and extracted through algorithms, a small amount of information that has value for capitalism is retained and packaged as goods for sale. This information can be referred to as residual data. Residual data can bring huge economic benefits and social power. Digital capitalists monitor the online behavior of digital users and use the self-generated information of digital users to generate targeted advertisements or financial products, accurately investing in the market to obtain excess profits. Digital capitalism has developed a large number of algorithms with the aim of filtering out a small portion of residual data that can bring benefits, while most self-contained information is stored in a certain digital space, waiting to be mined and utilized. The reason why abandoned and situated self-information cannot be discovered by people is because mainstream digital platforms and data algorithms are controlled and guided by the capitalist production system. What we can see is carefully selected images, sounds, and various information displayed. If we want to establish a new, harmonious digital space based on self information, achieve positive interaction between digital virtual entities and real individuals, and allow the buried self information to reappear, we must criticize and abandon data algorithms and digital platforms controlled by capital logic that are only used for profit and monitoring and build a common digital platform for the public and the group based on the principle of data and technology system sharing. Only by breaking the monopoly of data and digital means of production and breaking away from the data cocoon house created by digital capitalism can we move towards a broader digital space.