The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence
Summary
A labor theory of AI. Pasquinelli argues that AI did not come from imitating the brain. It came from imitating and automating the division of labor, from Babbage’s analysis of factory work to statistical pattern recognition and neural networks. Machine learning is the latest step: it automates the collective knowledge and behavior that Marx called the general intellect.
Why it’s useful here
- Griziotti’s main source. His “meta-automation” (the automation of automation) comes from this book (p. 237).
- Frames AI as a labor and governance issue, not a question of machine minds. That shifts the debate toward who controls the means of automation.
- Historical depth for posts on AI and work, and for the
labor-carethread.
Key ideas
- Labor theory of automation: algorithms emerge from social practices and the division of labor
- Babbage’s principle: the “eye of the master” as supervision and measurement of labor
- Machine learning as the automation of the general intellect
- Meta-automation: automating the design of automation itself
Related
- griziotti-2026-how-to-survive-artificial-intelligence.md
- griziotti-2018-neurocapitalism.md
- crawford-2021-atlas-of-ai.md