Networking class

In technostist philosophy, the networking class is the social class who benefits from the labour of the technotariat. In socialist philosphy, this class can be described as 'worker-owners'— workers who own enterprises via co-operatives or collectivism and act as both the workers of said enterprise and its owners. This relates to the technostist definition by way of having a class of people own the means of production and profit from their usage.

Relationship to the bourgeoisie
In Marxist philosophy the bourgeoisie is the social class who owns the means of production and whose societal concerns are the value of property and the preservation of capital, to ensure the perpetuation of their economic supremacy in society. Joseph Schumpeter instead saw the creation of new bourgeoisie as the driving force behind the capitalist engine, particularly entrepreneurs who took risks to bring innovation to industries and the economy through the process of creative destruction.

Through ownership of the technotariat, the networking class seeks to emulate the behaviors of the bourgeoisie.

Relationship to the proletariat
In Marxist philosophy, the proletariat is the social class who sell their labour for a wage or salary and does not have ownership of the means of production. According to Marxism, capitalism is a system based on the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. This exploitation takes place as follows: the workers, who own no means of production of their own, must use the means of production that are property of others in order to produce, and, consequently, earn their living. Instead of hiring those means of production, they themselves get hired by capitalists and work for them, producing goods or services. These goods or services become the property of the capitalist, who sells them at the market.

Technostist modes of thought insist that the networking class will be 'largely made up of former-proletarians freed from labour via the enslavement of the technotariat.'

Relationship to the technotariat
In technostist philosophy, the technotariat is the means of production formerly or still owned by the bourgeoisie. A technotarian is defined by possessing sentience, the capability to learn, reproduction, self-repair, lacking the biological needs of human workers, and lacking the sapience necessary to desire ownership. This includes robots and certain strains of artificial intelligence.

Ownership of the technotariat defines one as a networker. Technostism posits that the proletariat will achieve role of ownership over the technotariat via the creation of a wide network of worker-run enterprises or total worker control over the means of production.

Current examples
Present-day examples of the networking class are worker-owners of cooperatives and the bourgeoisie, or business owners. These people own the means of production where they work and profit from the usage of capital. In an automated environment, they would employ artificially intelligent capital to be used for their own gain without the need for a human working class.