Conversation

Debates over abolition raised existential questions about the future of Britain's empire, namely, how could international preeminence be maintained without racialized, enslaved labor? And so, [Charles] Babbage sought to solve the "labor question" with calculating engines that would standardize and discipline work into forms that supported British industry, capitalism, and imperial ambitions. Babbage's machines depended on automation, which in turn depended on the division and control of labor so that work could be made "observable, quantifiable, and controllable." ... Modern computation is born from an explicit attempt to replicate lucrative, violent forms of labor exploitation for the British Empire in the face of worker revolts and abolition movements."

--Edward Ongweso Jr., AI, slavery, surveillance, and capitalism

https://thetechbubble.substack.com/p/ai-slavery-surveillance-and-capitalism