Contemporary forms of relationship between capital and technicity: study about the genesis of proprietary and free license micro-processors between 1997-2012

Abstract

This project proposes an investigation of the contemporary relations between capital and technicity in the genesis of micro-processors under free and proprietary licenses between 1997 and 2012. In contemporary capitalism, the microelectronics revolution influenced the emergence of new modes of production and management, new technical objects and new ways of working. In this context, technicity has been seen as a way to generate capital from different perspectives. This project focuses on two of them: (1) the genesis of microprocessors by the company Intel - capital generation through marketing exclusivity, guaranteed by the privatization of technicity by proprietary licenses; (2) the genesis of micro-processors by the OpenCores organization - generation of capital through the provision of services and marketing, alongside the availability of technicity by public licenses. The prohibition or liberation of access to technicity implies a greater or lesser mediation of capital in the human-machine relation regarding the freedom of development and use of technical objects - which has been a key factor in the current political character of Intel and OpenCores on the creation of meanings about the relations between humans, machines and capital. (AU)