ABSTRACT
Code has become the theoretical language through which class critique is deleted from the analysis of network capitalism. According to dominant readings of software in code theory, network capitalism is not defined by class divisions between owners and workers, but by oscillating and opposing antagonisms operating within structures of "power". The rhetoric of an emancipatory code economy embraces the cultural logic of "disruption" that has become the centerpiece of the libertarian ethos of Silicon Valley, while normalizing the exploitation of labor on which it is based. Elon Musk's musings on the possibility that material reality is defined by the immateriality of code reflect a broader notion connecting high theory and popular culture in which the "software revolution" said to be driving contemporary capitalism is a deconstructive "double-code". Manuel DeLanda argues, for instance, "Left" theory can only survive today if it "leaves behind the dream of a Revolution that changes the entire system".
