Towards a Theory of Knowledge Socialism: Cognitive Capitalism and the Fourth Knowledge Revolution

Abstract

This paper takes a retrospective view of a body of work under the title ‘knowledge socialism’ (KS) to review the literature on the rise of peer production and, in particular, the emergence of different modes of openness concerning collegiality, collaboration, and collective intelligence that have become increasingly evident in ‘cognitive capitalism’. The fourth wave automation of knowledge and research developed quickly with the growth of ‘platform capitalism’, the rise of algorithmic-based knowledge capitalism and the rise of global search engines, big publishing and the metrics industries. Cognitive capitalism offers an alternative and opposing account of knowledge economy, and the notion of ‘creative labour’ provides an interesting alternative description to ‘human capital’. In this connection, I explore the wider philosophy and political economy of openness and ‘open knowledge production’ with a strong emphasis on ‘radical openness’ and new forms of ‘co(labor)ation’. In the era of 5G networks, there are still opportunities for full public knowledge, learning and publishing platforms that are, if not owned or subsidised by the State, at least strongly regulated in the interests of public good science, although it is not clear how long this will remain the case.