Smart Devices and the Capitalistic Subsumption of Knowledge: A New Function of Technology

Marx claimed that the primary function of technology in a capitalistic context is that of increasing the relative surplus value and, therefore, the rate of exploitation of the labour force. However, both in the Capital and in the Grundrisse he identifies a second, derived function: that of subsumption of knowledge to the capitalistic needs. Our thesis is that, even if smart technologies keep these two fundamental functions, they have brought to light a third function: a new form of subsumption of knowledge. We will see how the latter concerns not only the production process but also our daily life, and how it is based on data, the “raw material” of knowledge. Furthermore, we will argue that this new function of technology does not result from a degeneration of capitalism, but from its essential laws of motion: the need for this new form of knowledge subsumption has been always hidden in the structural uncertainty of the process of accumulation, which has never been peacefully accepted by the capitalists. Today, the latter have the instruments to partially reduce this uncertainty, and the anguish resulting from i