Origin Stories Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control

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Metadata

Author: Logic(s) Magazine
Full Title: Origin Stories: Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control
Category: articles
Document Tags: #tech
URL: https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/origin-stories-plantations-computers-and-industrial-control/

From inception, the engines—“the principles on which all modern computing machines are based”2—were envisioned as tools for automating and disciplining labor. (View Highlight)
In legislation and labor policy, the concept of freedom is largely rooted in the contract: the textually stipulated (in)ability for people to come and go, to agree to terms and walk away from them, backed by law and ultimately state violence.4 In this formulation, workers and employers are understood to approach the contract as equals, each exercising their freedom to accept or deny a contract’s terms. However, this assumed freedom is curtailed in practice by structural power asymmetries that are enforced by technologies of worker control designed to achieve employers’ goals of extracting as much productive energy as possible. (View Highlight)