“The Fragment on Machines”

How should society be organised, if at all?

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Bill Wiltrack
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“The Fragment on Machines”

Post by Bill Wiltrack »

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In the “Fragment” Marx imagines an economy in which the main role of machines is to produce, and the main role of people is to supervise them.

He was clear that, in such an economy, the main productive force would be information.

The productive power of such machines as the automated cotton-spinning machine, the telegraph and the steam locomotive did not depend on the amount of labour it took to produce them but on the state of social knowledge.

Organisation and knowledge, in other words, made a bigger contribution to productive power than the work of making and running the machines.


Welcome to 2016!

Where information, organisation and knowledge make a bigger contribution to productive power than the work of making and running the machines...which is done by slaves in China and Indochina.








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Arising_uk
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Re: “The Fragment on Machines”

Post by Arising_uk »

Don't worry Bill the Chinese will soon providing the organisation and knowledge as well.

Not slaves Bill, paid workers. Poorly paid compared to profits I'll give you but relatively better off than their peers.
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Bill Wiltrack
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Re: “The Fragment on Machines”

Post by Bill Wiltrack »

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I mean it's semantics. The actual word slave is hardly ever used today...but, as I have stated before here upon The PhilosophyNow Forum: In my country, when slaves were slaves and people owned them, at least the slaves were given food and a place to sleep. In China you are on your own. Most workers in China there make next-to-nothing, sleep in cages & have absolutely no human rights. Call it what you want.







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Hope you enjoy using your smartphone and computer today.








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...cause these poor bastards just spent their lives making the trinkets and appliances that make your life worthwhile.







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