Predatory Logic of Post-Humanist Technological Capitalism in Vonnegut's "Confido"

Abstract

ARPANET, Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Confido" is a shockingly prophetic allegory for post-humanist technological capitalism. This paper argue that "Confido," which is the invention, marketing and internalization of a device which flattters users with exactly what they want to hear, dramatizes how technology under capitalism stops reflecting human desire and starts creating it even though it promises they can enjoy companionship and understanding. This study argue that “Confido”, the invention, marketing and internalization of a device that flatters its users with exactly what they want to hear, dramatizes how technology under capitalism stops reflecting human desire and begins to manufacture it promising them companionship and understanding while generating envy, discontent, and estrangement. Analyzing the primary text with the aid of a cross-theoretical framework of qualitative interpretative literary criticism, the study draws on a combination of theories from the Frankfurt School (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1944; Marcuse, 1964), post-humanism (Hayles, 1999; Haraway, 1985), political economy of communication (Mosco, 2009) and surveillance capitalism (Fuchs, 2014; Zuboff, 2019), as well as ecocritical theory and literature on "slow violence" (Nixon). The analysis follows Henry in his metamorphosis from alienated worker to capitalist manufacturer, the commercialization of his family's dreams and information, and the destructive impact of manufactured envy and surveillance on family and social relationships. The present study argues that the ubiquity of Confido in the narrative is reminiscent of the kind of digital devices that are omnipresent today that harvest personal information, suck attention and that pollute the production process. Finally, the reading of the story is not an anti-technology reading, but rather one that draws attention to the critical examination of the capitalist interests that are the basis of the evolution of this technology, because there cannot be actual human relationships without the need for technology.

Keywords: post-humanism, technological capitalism, commodity fetishism, surveillance capitalism, alienation, Kurt Vonnegut, "Confido", digital labor, ecocriticism; Frankfurt Schools