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Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Big Tech and Planetary Crisis
An anti-capitalist guide to breaking the power of Big Tech
Big Tech firms dominate the global economy. But what value do they actually produce? In this brilliant survey of global tech economy, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Alessandra Mularoni argue that the role of firms like Amazon and Google, Palantir and Uber, is in the automation of circulation.
By applying digital technologies to processes of market exchange—everything from advertising and shopping, to logistics and financial services—Big Tech aims to subject these activities to the level of control and predictability that capital has secured in industrial production.
But there is a way out of the multiple crises that Big Tech has helped precipitate. If we are to break their grip on the global economy then it’ll take more than just antitrust legislation or reducing individual time online.
By understanding the central role Big Tech plays in contemporary capitalism, Dyer-Witheford and Mularoni argue that what is required instead is a new, ambitious and comprehensive program of democratic collective planning that can move us beyond capitalism.
Cybernetic Circulation Complex offers not only a compelling analysis of the power of Big Tech and their role in our current global crises, but a roadmap for a new form of biocommunism, a digital degrowth that can help us steer between the double boundaries of ecological sustainability and equitable social development.
Big Tech firms dominate the global economy. But what value do they actually produce? In this brilliant survey of global tech economy, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Alessandra Mularoni argue that the role of firms like Amazon and Google, Palantir and Uber, is in the automation of circulation.
By applying digital technologies to processes of market exchange—everything from advertising and shopping, to logistics and financial services—Big Tech aims to subject these activities to the level of control and predictability that capital has secured in industrial production.
But there is a way out of the multiple crises that Big Tech has helped precipitate. If we are to break their grip on the global economy then it’ll take more than just antitrust legislation or reducing individual time online.
By understanding the central role Big Tech plays in contemporary capitalism, Dyer-Witheford and Mularoni argue that what is required instead is a new, ambitious and comprehensive program of democratic collective planning that can move us beyond capitalism.
Cybernetic Circulation Complex offers not only a compelling analysis of the power of Big Tech and their role in our current global crises, but a roadmap for a new form of biocommunism, a digital degrowth that can help us steer between the double boundaries of ecological sustainability and equitable social development.
208 pages, Paperback
Published February 11, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 14, 2025
Wonderful theory of big tech as a part of modern capital. Just as long as it needs to be without dragging out too much, it is the perfect text to understand big tech in the functioning of the capitalist system today, from data miners to generative ai. Great half price books find per usual
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March 30, 2026has some use in how it organizes what is essentially a literature review, but doesn't transcend that. disappointing
September 12, 2026
Yes, like many books these days, this seems to be more of a literature review than one that brings a new menu to the table. That said, it’s pretty dense and doesn’t really feel like an introduction either - a paradox so often found in writing that makes readers feel like children and superhumans at the same time. This deserves a praising tangent:
A lot of independent (or not) journalism today feels both a bit paternalistic and esoteric. Authors tend to over-explain basic concepts while skipping crucial connective logic and taking too much for granted. They become pedantic in their obsession with minor introductory details, lecturing readers on the basics while remaining cryptic about the actual meat of the argument. It shows a certain unwillingness to break away from conventional frameworks.
I bring it up here because this book does the exact opposite. It does an excellent job of presenting ideas in structured, bite-sized chunks that neither feel rushed nor held back. The build-up toward Biocommunism and how to break the power of Big Tech is genuinely meaningful and well-paced. Great stuff!
In short, rather than focusing on production, the focus here lies on circulation, which indeed seems to be the real business of Big Tech. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Apple dominate by controlling and accelerating the circulation of capital. Circulation itself is a site of labour…
“Data is the ‘new oil’ of capitalism. A major source of revenue for platform capitalists, either used for micro-target advertising, gigworker surveillance, product redesign, or sold to third-party brokers.”
“Digital devices and data centres serve to speed up circulation. The Big Five’s vast wealth allows them to make investments in fields ranging from healthcare to clothing brands and space travel; but circulatory processes and devices remain at the core of their ongoing accumulation.”
“Only if circulation succeeds does capital become an autocatalytic, self-generating, bootstrapping growth process, a constantly revolving circle in which every point is simultaneously a point of departure and a point of return.”
“The smartphone can be many things, but it is above all a shopping device: a commodity that circulates other commodities.
As such, they have blurred the line between users and workers; we are unpaid workers who sell our data for free in a network of invisible growth where the rich get richer.
“We focus on circulation and not on production because the CCC produces circulation. In the majority of instances, the CCC’s software and hardware are designed to make money by, directly or indirectly, speeding the circulation of commodities. For a price, the CCC digitally smooths the passage of commodities towards money.”
“Heaps of commodities-in-circulation, on the way to their translation into money, can only be navigated by machines. In a pick tower, a human without a digital prosthesis (a data gun) is lost. Workers are now required to perform repetitive tasks at the pace matching robotic efficiency.”
“Big Data is capital’s cybernetic record of its own cybernetic circulation. Capital’s ‘data double’, the fluctuating self-image created by constant digital tracking of its own activities. It is capital’s ghost in the machine, and the machine is the data centre.“
“Influencers escalate AdTech targeting, contributing to the acceleration of the conversion of commodities into money, but as ‘self-employed’ workers they receive money for their labour. A tiny minority of top-rank influencers are multimillionaires, while a long tail of low earners barely cover their production costs, and many make a loss, subsidising their ‘influencing’ with other work. Influencers tend to describe themselves as entrepreneurs, yet they are dependent on the CCC platforms, much like so-called ‘independent journalists’ who almost outrank classic journalists today. All are bound to algorithmic curation.”
Now obviously, we cannot change all this with a friendly conversation with the business-as-usual. Only those who are still comfortable having a career within the status quo would propose standard fixes and naive notions of limitations. A radical pivot towards establishing new ecological boundaries and (Digital) Degrowth needs to be pushed forward. Indeed, where even Technofeudalism feels like a mere diagnosis, Biocommunism stands as a prescription. We should arguably seize control of the digital cage, break it down, and reshape it into a life-support. It’s not going to happen without a struggle.
A lot of independent (or not) journalism today feels both a bit paternalistic and esoteric. Authors tend to over-explain basic concepts while skipping crucial connective logic and taking too much for granted. They become pedantic in their obsession with minor introductory details, lecturing readers on the basics while remaining cryptic about the actual meat of the argument. It shows a certain unwillingness to break away from conventional frameworks.
I bring it up here because this book does the exact opposite. It does an excellent job of presenting ideas in structured, bite-sized chunks that neither feel rushed nor held back. The build-up toward Biocommunism and how to break the power of Big Tech is genuinely meaningful and well-paced. Great stuff!
In short, rather than focusing on production, the focus here lies on circulation, which indeed seems to be the real business of Big Tech. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Apple dominate by controlling and accelerating the circulation of capital. Circulation itself is a site of labour…
“Data is the ‘new oil’ of capitalism. A major source of revenue for platform capitalists, either used for micro-target advertising, gigworker surveillance, product redesign, or sold to third-party brokers.”
“Digital devices and data centres serve to speed up circulation. The Big Five’s vast wealth allows them to make investments in fields ranging from healthcare to clothing brands and space travel; but circulatory processes and devices remain at the core of their ongoing accumulation.”
“Only if circulation succeeds does capital become an autocatalytic, self-generating, bootstrapping growth process, a constantly revolving circle in which every point is simultaneously a point of departure and a point of return.”
“The smartphone can be many things, but it is above all a shopping device: a commodity that circulates other commodities.
As such, they have blurred the line between users and workers; we are unpaid workers who sell our data for free in a network of invisible growth where the rich get richer.
“We focus on circulation and not on production because the CCC produces circulation. In the majority of instances, the CCC’s software and hardware are designed to make money by, directly or indirectly, speeding the circulation of commodities. For a price, the CCC digitally smooths the passage of commodities towards money.”
“Heaps of commodities-in-circulation, on the way to their translation into money, can only be navigated by machines. In a pick tower, a human without a digital prosthesis (a data gun) is lost. Workers are now required to perform repetitive tasks at the pace matching robotic efficiency.”
“Big Data is capital’s cybernetic record of its own cybernetic circulation. Capital’s ‘data double’, the fluctuating self-image created by constant digital tracking of its own activities. It is capital’s ghost in the machine, and the machine is the data centre.“
“Influencers escalate AdTech targeting, contributing to the acceleration of the conversion of commodities into money, but as ‘self-employed’ workers they receive money for their labour. A tiny minority of top-rank influencers are multimillionaires, while a long tail of low earners barely cover their production costs, and many make a loss, subsidising their ‘influencing’ with other work. Influencers tend to describe themselves as entrepreneurs, yet they are dependent on the CCC platforms, much like so-called ‘independent journalists’ who almost outrank classic journalists today. All are bound to algorithmic curation.”
Now obviously, we cannot change all this with a friendly conversation with the business-as-usual. Only those who are still comfortable having a career within the status quo would propose standard fixes and naive notions of limitations. A radical pivot towards establishing new ecological boundaries and (Digital) Degrowth needs to be pushed forward. Indeed, where even Technofeudalism feels like a mere diagnosis, Biocommunism stands as a prescription. We should arguably seize control of the digital cage, break it down, and reshape it into a life-support. It’s not going to happen without a struggle.
October 15, 2025
Nothing new but the biocommunism concept is cute
September 14, 2026
While I'm more of a FALC-guy myself, I find the idea of Biocommunism (and just the word itself, frankly) enticing.
What I don't understand about these kinds of books is how shy they are about their own Big Idea. The term "Biocommunism" itself is demoted to the back cover of the book, and you only get into the meat of the concept in the last section or two of the last chapter of the book. I found the word curious enough that that is why I bought it: put it proudly on the cover!
The other 95% of these books are typically a hand-hold through Marxist theory and history, which is fine and maybe necessary for most, but I'd rather see this: lead with your thesis and main thrust, take us through that theory and history, and reinforce your idea in relation to that fertile soil from whence it sprouted.
Then again I know nothing about selling books, but here's your (slightly generous) 4-star review in light of the above.
What I don't understand about these kinds of books is how shy they are about their own Big Idea. The term "Biocommunism" itself is demoted to the back cover of the book, and you only get into the meat of the concept in the last section or two of the last chapter of the book. I found the word curious enough that that is why I bought it: put it proudly on the cover!
The other 95% of these books are typically a hand-hold through Marxist theory and history, which is fine and maybe necessary for most, but I'd rather see this: lead with your thesis and main thrust, take us through that theory and history, and reinforce your idea in relation to that fertile soil from whence it sprouted.
Then again I know nothing about selling books, but here's your (slightly generous) 4-star review in light of the above.
May 21, 2026
An incisive summary of the Big Tech debate that uses a Marxist lens to expose the flaws and blind spots of mainstream economics concerning the digital realm. I highly appreciated its clear writing style and unapologetic political stance. I think the book would have benefited by elaborating certain sections more. Especially the biocommunist ending needed concrete strategic pillars to connect it to actual, ongoing struggles. Ultimately, though, it's an essential introduction and highly necessary in the current debates around Big Tech, AI, and alternative futures.
May 23, 2025
[2.5 stars] This was a bit disappointing. Maybe I had the wrong expectations going into it. I wanted it to get much more into cybernetics and how it has evolved, and to really engage with the reactionary and anti-humanist thoughts that are sometimes associated with California ideology, but instead, a lot of the book just feels like particularly verbose rehashing of talking points that are already well circulated in the media, and already have broad consensus in academic settings.
June 14, 2025
Sometimes I wish my brain let me abandon books more easily because damn was this stalling my reading. Probably doesn't help that I hate both economics and fancy/ obscure writing styles, but I think this could've been an essay explaining biocommunism rather than this long-winded journey through well-known information to a short blip about a (semi?) new idea.
September 2, 2026
Started in New Jersey, read through in Pittsburgh, finished out on the porch in Dallas.
Gave me lots of useful language to talk about the effects of digital capitalism, and a deeper understanding of the interconnection of physical and digital economies.
Gave me lots of useful language to talk about the effects of digital capitalism, and a deeper understanding of the interconnection of physical and digital economies.
March 21, 2025
More of a summary of platforms and a touch of theory introducing 'biocommunism'
March 29, 2025
Bio communism, a nice idea.
July 16, 2025
As always nick dyer-witherford provides a lucid and inspired analysis of the power of big tech and its influence on our contemporary world. Theoretically profound and yet crystal-clear analysis.
Read
August 17, 2025I read most of this in a field
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews