No, I haven't forgotten about those who fight back (tho the onion may not be the best place to look for them). It was their resistance to the lengthening of the working day that gave capital the impetus to try to destroy them with their own dead labor. And how much of the repressive apparatus we know of today is a bastard creation of the Luddites?
I for one was arguing that outsourcing is not unique, rather it's the manifestation of a much more general process.
The metaphor of the machine is crucial because the advanced capitalist world is now saturated with it, in all realms, and this needs to be explained. The machine heads are even making inroads into the demense of my own serfdom: geography, as they scurry to learn and apply agent-based modeling to all sorts of situations, while other people try to convince me that it's not only 'life' that has agency. Philip Mirowski's book Machine Dreams is a wonderful account of how they have developed in economics.
I'm not sure what this thread is about either. What do you think?
Cheers,
Jonathan
>They don't want to build more simulcrums of ourselves *externally*
(automaton), >but to literally reduce us to our lowest common demoninator,
and recombine us as
>organs of the machine:
But don't forget about those who dare to fight back:
http://www.itsthecatsass.com/newboard/messages/95169.htm CAMBRIDGE, MA—Scientists at MIT's Advanced Machine Cognizance Project announced Tuesday that, after seeing the final installment of the Matrix trilogy, they will cease all further work in the field of artificial intelligence.
"As scientists of conscience, we must consider the ethical ramifications of AI development," said Dr. Gregory Jameson, director of machine epistemology and ontology at MIT. "The Matrix taught us that we cannot ignore our obligation to the future of mankind. We must free our minds to this fact, or we will accidentally unleash a nightmarish army of sentient machines."
Added Jameson: "Some may call the extinction of humankind inevitable, but I, for one, will still resist." ...
Seriously, what is this thread about? The threat of outsourcing as a way to reduce people's livelihoods to only that of instruments of the "capitalist machine"? Yeah, it increases labor insecurity but I don't see why it's unique among the various other ways of making workers more pliable to the demands of bosses. I don't the see the importance of the mechanical metaphors either.
Arash
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