Workplace algorithmic control differs only superficially from mechanical Taylorism
Evidence
Does it matter, I imagine you asking, that in modern factories and warehouses this control is no longer exercised by cogs, wheels, sprockets and belts but by algorithms running on plug-in devices wirelessly connected to the company’s neural network? No, not much. Cloud proles – my term for waged workers driven to their physical limits by cloud-based algorithms – suffer at work in ways that would be instantly recognised by whole generations of earlier proletarians. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 324
Categorization
- DEFINE: Formal definition of ‘cloud proles’ as waged workers driven by cloud algorithms, continuous with earlier proletarian experience.
- XREF: connects to: Algorithms on factory floors merely continue Taylorist machine pacing of workers — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 323; Algorithmic-imagination critiques center on exploitation, domination, and digital Taylorism — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 284; Algorithmic managers have replaced human bosses in key sectors — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 326 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Monitoring algorithms replace managers in enforcing work intensity
#corroborates(0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 117 - Algorithmic-imagination critiques center on exploitation, domination, and digital Taylorism
#corroborates(0.82) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 284 - Algorithmic managers have replaced human bosses in key sectors
#expands(0.78) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 326 - Official philosophy is reduced to a mental Taylorism serving industry
#expands(0.72)