Automatic Systems after Marx

ABSTRACT This article foregrounds the relevance of Marx’s analysis of machines beyond 19th century industrial technology. Can a Marxian analysis shed light on the historical implications of contemporary digital technology and automation? The article proposes that “automatic systems,” an expression from volume 1 of Capital, could serve as the guiding conceptual tool for envisaging possible answers to this question. A close reading of mainly volume 1 of Capital, in addition to Marx’s preparatory notes for Capital, is presented in the second and main section of this article. The overarching argument is that contrary to claims otherwise, the foundation laid out in Capital provides us with a structural analysis that neither is technologically determinist nor denies the social significance of technological shifts as the material condition for class struggle. This argument will be preceded by a detailed and critical discussion of an ongoing debate in Marxist theory today, notably literature inspired by authors such as A. Negri and P. Virno. The article concludes with the relationship between knowledge and capital.