Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Description and Search Labor
Introduction
The previous chapter characterized selection labor as a form of mental
labor and established theoretical minima for a given collection of objects.
It also noted that the premodern technologies of writing and printing
on paper separated selection labor into description and search labor.
Similarly, the discussion acknowledged the reconvergence of descrip-
tion and search activities with computer-based, or modern, technologies,
together with the possibility of sustaining analytical distinctions between
them. The activities of description and searching still require more fully
empirical characterization as components of selection labor.
This chapter will develop and elucidate the concepts of description and
search labor. As mental labor, description and search labor participate in
the conditions for other forms of mental labor. Therefore, the chapter will
introduce distinctions between types of mental labor and their different
possibilities for transfer to technology. The perspective established on
mental labor and technology is then used to understand description and
search labor and their relation to selection labor.
Concepts of Mental Labor
Labor and Mental Labor
For both
Genesis
and Marx, labor—productive work in nature—is a fun-
damental condition of human life, imposed by the necessity for survival.
The labour process . . . is purposeful activity aimed at the production of use-val-
ues. It is an appropriation of what exists in nature for the requirements of man.
