To me it seems like category of ‘energy’ intersect all of the other interlinked categories such as labour-attention-value-wealth-exhaustion. While what makes ‘value’ important is the assumption of the ‘scarcity’ in classical economists’ eyes. Yet, scarcity it self historically and politically created by the ruling classes. So if ‘scarcity’is artificially created why not we rethink the centrality of category of ‘value’? In my opinion independent from the end result, labour must be prior to ‘value’. May be saying ‘labour is the source of value’ is a way to try achieve this, but in ding so you accept the priority of value analytically. Politically, only labour bears the potential to overcome this forcefully created situation. ‘What’ is being produced so outcome of the labour preocess can also be prior to ‘value’ itself. What is the use ‘value’ of guns and bombs? If value creation is about focused [in terms of concentrated attention] / or automised [became habit/motoric] combination of mental and physical activity [labour], than it is about the energy at its roots. Energy and transition from one form of energy to other at both sides. Labourer and labour process are essentially energy transformation processes. Use value, is also about energy consumption, preservation, tranformation, transportation, in its core. Like from kinetic to thermo, potential, chemical, electric, electromagnetic, nuclear. From one place to other etc. All this natural processes, through ‘entogenesis’ are embedded in human biostructure [genes, nerves, mussels] and becomes something societal and historical in the passing millions of years. Once we recall that all concrete forms of matter is also a form of energy [vibrating mass E+mc2], its centrality becomes visible. Understood in relation to energy and transformation of energy primarily, labour can be thought as a historical commons essentially linked to other social and natural commons. And ‘value’ can be rethought as a capacity to influence on creation transformation and sharing of such energy so making impact/changing mass/material/body so also historical entities like Human, and the society.
Coming back to Facebook, attention and value discussion; what Michel points out as far as I understand is while depending on both market’s forced scarcity, Facebook also depends on its distortion by p2p sharing on the net. However, as Facebook is operating on web 2.0, a terrain that has already captured by the capital in a way scarcities created, it can rather be though as ‘free market’ typology. As an ideal form, free market is a space where all the information is accessible by all the actors, while it is opposite in reality, all actors know about each other, while it is never true. In its ideal form, free market describes a p2p entity. Like the internet before it is captured by capital. In the captured unfree real market, what capital always had to do is while hiding itself, real information on itself, in terms of class, what ingredients they use, real costs, etc. try to appropriate [market intelligence]as much information as possible about the labour process, consumers, and competitors. In my opinion Facebook creates a mega market intelligence, while it appropriate enormous data about the ordinary consumer and other companies, this gives to it a strategic and systemic advantage to Zuckerberg against the old boys within global capitalist class, and against the working people first of all. Instead of threatening the conditions new knowledge enclosure launched with ACTA, PIPA, SOPA will increase its ‘value’ creation and realization circles in a capitalist sense. What Facebook really does in terms of labour commons [historical and conscious form of energy and energy transforming] is destroying it, by commodification of its ‘immaterial’ form as well. Facebook completes the dream of state and market forces while doing so. Therefore it has a good chance to survive in both repressive and liberal forms of global capitalism. It is also true that unwillingly [or may be willingly – similar to Google’s movement.org protal that faciliates p2p grassroots activism] it provides a space for the movements and activists who are trying to recapture those terrains in which free culture can grow and spread.