So I've been reading Fossil Capital, and its discussion of how steam power was fetishized during the industrial revolution is really eye-opening. First, a useful definiton:
"In critical studies of capitalist societies, certain objects – notably money and commodities – have long been recognized as modern fetishes, operating as though they had agency of their own, placed on a pedestal above ordinary mortals and venerated; like 'primitive' fetishes, they conceal within themselves their true origins. Social power is imparted to the objects, so that relations between human beings appear in the guise of things, to the detriment of some and the gain of others. Now, to this body of theory [Alf] Hornborg has made the signal contribution of attending to the machine, which he claims, is nothing less than ' the most central fetish of industrial capitalism.' 'Machine fetishism,' then, is the attribution of generative capacity and independent productivity to the machine, ostensibly the greatest agent of progress, a cornucopia and latter-day idol, whose real foundations are obscured. It occupies a liminal zone imbricating fantasy and actuality, the two moments reflecting and reinforcing each other."
A reminder that Fossil Capital was written in 2016, and so what follows could not be intentionally invoking comparisons to a certain new technology that became popular around 2022, but boy...
“A machine is a slave that neither brings nor bears degradation: it is a being endowed with the greatest degree of energy and acting under the greatest degree of excitement, yet free at the same time from all passion and emotion. It is therefore, not only a slave, but a supernatural slave.
Finally, no more need for human employees, we can just use our AI agents!
“Such mysticism was everything but rare in accolades to the machine: in his treatise on the power loom, master weaver William Radcliffe spoke of 'the magical power of machinery, which subjects wool, linen, silk, and cotton to illimitable production by mechanical agency that consumes no bread'
“What business of life is there in which steam will not have a part? … Nothing is too great or too small for its potent and subtle agency.”
"You better get used to steam. If you're not using steam, you're going to get left behind!"
“Time and again, the engine was described as being alive, a subject acting and performing and doing all sorts of thins ex proprio vigore, even an organism with all the hallmarks of metabolism and vitality."
"ChatGPT wrote this for me -- Claude thinks it means this -- I was talking to my AI Therapist"
Same shit, different wrapper. I've come around to "AI" boosters claims that it it's like the industrial revolution -- it is also a massively exploitative and harmful technology, overhyped by its proponents that will eventually lead to terrible consequences for the entire human race, just like fossil fuels!
2087
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amandla
