Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
It is the universal condition for the metabolic interaction ( Stoffwechsel ) between
man and nature, the everlasting nature imposed condition of human existence,
and it is therefore independent of every form of that existence, or rather it is com-
mon to all forms of society in which human beings live. (Marx 1867/1976, 290)
Mental labor is usually conceived as an adjunct to enhancing control over
the physical environment, but it also can be considered as an activity in
itself, with possibilities for mechanization explored (Minsky 1967, 2).
Agrarian, industrial, and information technologies can be regarded as
human constructions, the product of human labor on natural resources
and preexisting human-made products, rather than naturally or objec-
tively given. In Marx's work, the understanding of technology as a human
construction receives its fullest expression in a classic passage from the
Grundrisse , whose themes implicitly inform the treatment of technology
in Capital (Marx 1867/1976).
Nature builds no machines, no locomotives, railways, electric telegraphs, self-
acting mules etc. These are products of human industry; natural material trans-
formed into organs of the human will over nature, or of human participation
in nature. They are organs of the human brain, created by the human hand ; the
power of knowledge, objectified. The development of fixed capital indicates to
what degree general social knowledge has become a direct force of production .
(Marx 1858/1973, 706)
Although Marx mentions automatic devices involving control mecha-
nisms (“self-acting mules” [automatic spinning machines]), the passage
focuses on industrial technologies common during his historical period.
Regarding information technology as a human construction and con-
cerned with the transformation of signals rather than natural resources
(Warner 2004, 5-35), indicates the possibility of a similar transfer of
human mental labor to technology. For both industrial and information
technology, transferring direct human labor to technology can speed proc-
esses and enable previously impossible activities.
The possibility of transferring aspects of direct human labor to technol-
ogy enables a dynamic between human labor and its technological prod-
ucts, in which forms of direct human work are progressively transferred
to technological processes. The dynamic is compelled by the historical
search for greater control over the environment and accelerated by the
innovatory dynamic of capitalism, including the impulse from reduced
immediate costs of labor transferred to technology. From the perspective
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