Automation and Algorithms: From Form to Content

Automation and algorithms, as ideas and techniques, have a long history. The official history of automation traces its origins back to the close of the nineteenth century and the emergence of such mechanical systems as James Watt’s steam engine, the lathe, and the Jacquard loom. However, a broader view of the notion, understood as any attempt to replace or reduce human labor through the introduction of artifacts, would begin the history much earlier. Such attempts, as we discuss below, have resulted in mixed outcomes—most recently, in the growing phenomenon of heteromation, understood as a new method of capital accumulation reliant on masses of free or low-cost human labor (Ekbia and Nardi 2017)