Profiling the Machine Age into the perpetuum mobile

Abstract

The paper experimentally applies Marx’s theories and methodology to some specific Machine and Information Age information appropriation scenarios and sets context for the question, “Is the basis of surplus value in an Information Age situated in people’s labor, the stored informative-memory about people, or both, or is it found elsewhere in a changed production process, which may involve Marx’s visionary perpetuum mobile?†The paper uses aspects of Marx’s historical materialism method, commodity theory and theory of surplus value, to analyze informative-memory appropriation in different contexts, such as: appropriation of survey information (WWII Germany); spy appropriation of information from unwitting citizens (post -WWII and Cold War-era United States prior to 9/11); automated appropriation of electronic informative-memory from witting citizens (post-9/11 United States). This brief historical-comparative overview, application of Marx-inspired methodology to different historical information appropriation contexts explores the potential of Marxian applications in an information age, rather than engaging in detailed accounting of the contexts, or a continuation of arguments about the intentions behind the use of stored and machine-processed punch card information in the events of the Holocaust.