----- Original Message ----- From: <jjlassen at chinastudygroup.org>
Ian,
Pre-capitalist oppressors could not borg us, even if they tried. They did not have the power. To borg is to convert everything into a single self-animated machine. How could despots or feudal rulers do that without the forces and conditions of production that capitalism wrought?
Cheers,
Jonathan
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I thought we were talking capitalism, excluding pre-capitalist social formations. What about Vaucanson's automata? They're older than Babbage, don't they count?
Ian