Socially necessary waste rationalizes science and technique

Evidence

Late industrial society has increased rather than reduced the need for parasitical and alienated functions (for the society as a whole, if not for the individual). Advertising, public relations, indoctrination, planned obsolescence are no longer unproductive overhead costs but rather elements of basic production costs. In order to be effective, such production of socially necessary waste requires continuous rationalization—the relentless utilization of advanced techniques and science. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 230

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘socially necessary waste’ and ‘parasitical functions’ as core production costs — a key Frankfurt School notion that advertising and planned obsolescence are structurally required.
• XREF: Directly underpins the reader’s attention-economy interest: attention extraction functions as basic production cost in platform capitalism, mirroring Marcuse’s parasitical functions. — connects to: Science models the ethos of ends justifying means — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 456; Scientific rationalism becomes an instrument of social domination — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 141; Influencers convert waste into content that is itself livable surplus — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist…, 261 (+1 more)
• SEED: Article angle: what the category ‘socially necessary waste’ predicts about AI-driven advertisement and engagement engineering.

Broader Connections

• Scientific rationalism becomes an instrument of social domination #expands (0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 141
• Science models the ethos of ends justifying means #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 456
• Influencers convert waste into content that is itself livable surplus #epitomizes (0.75) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 261
• Enraged public attention and billionaire waste form a mutually reinforcing symbiosis #epitomizes (0.72) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 373