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Origin Stories: Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control

logicmag.io · 6,411 words · saved by 1 readers

The proto-Taylorist methods of worker control Charles Babbage encoded into his calculating engines have origins in plantation management.

Origin Stories: Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control Meredith Whittaker Tamil translation available now The blueprint for modern digital computing was codesigned by Charles Babbage, a vocal champion for the concerns of the emerging industrial capitalist class who condemned organized workers and viewed democracy and capitalism as incompatible. Histories of Babbage diverge sharply in their emphasis. His influential theories on how “enterprising capitalists” could best subjugate workers are well documented in conventional labor scholarship. However, these are oddly absent from many main

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