Machine winter

Machine winter. Knowledge, technology, socialism. A polemic. is an essay by Dietmar Dath in which he discusses how the increased labor productivity caused by machines can be used for society.

In his loosely presented argumentation, Dath mainly relies on Darwin's theory of the origin of species and Marx's analysis of bourgeois society. a. and Lenin , Marshall McLuhan , Michel Foucault and Murray Bookchin approach.

argumentation

Important elements of his argumentation, presented in 34 chapters, are the following: Machines have increased labor productivity, but this no longer leads to a reduction in working hours, but to the deportation of those who the entrepreneurs believe they cannot use for production. In addition, it is now possible through patent law that one can privately skim off worldwide work in one area. In relation to such beneficiaries, the employee who wants to participate in the overall social performance for his performance finds himself in the class struggle. This struggle is fought out as a struggle for existential needs if this is not prevented by the recognition and enforcement of general human rights.

The economy has globalized, ie all national economies are closely related. If mistakes are made in one area, this can cause a worldwide catastrophe. Fortunately, computers are now so advanced that global - democratically controlled - planning is possible. Global planning already exists in corporations. It would only have to be sensibly oriented, that is, not just on profit.

The fact that central planning failed in real socialism is no proof that it is not possible; because with new technologies the design possibilities expand.

In general, the fact that a literal application of Marxian statements is often unsuitable for interpreting current relationships does not mean that no social analysis that meets scientific standards could be developed on the basis of his considerations. Even Foucault's idea that today's human being, whom we consider to be the bearer of human rights, is only a phenomenon that is limited to a specific historical context, does not contradict the following general considerations, since these also apply to beings who are more developed than today's People.

If a being can generate more through the division of labor than it directly needs for itself and for its descendants, and if it can therefore develop beyond its initial position (i.e. make history), then through continuous optimization it enables itself to “tend for everyone tend to be able to produce anything that can be produced at all ”(p. 71).

Increased labor productivity makes it possible to spend an ever larger proportion of the work on the development of machines and technologies (and thus for a further increase in productivity) - instead of on consumer goods. If these new opportunities are not used to improve the quality of life of the majority, it will be to secure the prerogatives of the haves in struggles for the distribution of resources.

These new goals can be achieved through reforms or through a revolutionary transformation of society. It would be nice if it could be done through reforms alone, but that is unlikely.

But there is also an alternative to reshaping society, namely stabilizing the relationship of mutual dependence. This could be carried so far through biotechnology and eugenics that two new species emerge from the human species: masters and servants. Of course, that would be a step backwards.

Instead of this development, however, it is also conceivable that machines will no longer produce superfluous things, i.e. sterile like plants in winter, but that they will contribute to more freedom for people.

Footnotes

↑ "Anyone who does not demand justice as a German or a left-handed woman, but as a species that can create wealth on all sides, but is excluded from fully realizing and enjoying this ability due to the structure of society, embarks on the class struggle." (P. 27)
↑ " Denying the poor the right to freely choose what they buy from their monetary alms can be despotic, racist or culturally justified [...], but cannot be reconciled with the universalist idea of human dignity [...] ] Meal vouchers reflect the state of the great industry and every expanded state that may come after it, as obscene as Jewish stars, caste separation or branding on slave foreheads. "(P. 39)
↑ “Man is an invention, the recent date of which is quite openly shown in the archeology of our thinking. Maybe the end soon. If these dispositions disappear as they appeared, [...] then one can very well bet that man disappears like a face in the sand on the seashore. ”(Foucault: The order of things , quoted from Dath, p. 64)
↑ “If the genre is as I describe it, every single copy of it has the unconditional right to develop its genre-creating and transcending potential, as far as it can. The most interesting thing that humans could produce is humanity. ”(P. 72)
↑ “We will slaughter one another for the bare essentials and the simplest; we will rob each other of what we could reasonably use together [...] through an equal population policy. "(p. 118)
↑ Hence the title machine winter .