Rhizome Experiment, Fall 2015Main MenuPowerteam pageRhizome ConceptThe Virtual and The RealSelfTeam Overview Page & TagIntro to the Virtual SelfThe world of social media, avatars, and the brandscapeSimulation MachineDerived from the previous paper to make an introduction to AI, the advanced simulation machineArtificial IntelligenceRace and the Social MachineDrone PilotsFull Battle RattleTechnology and the Black ExperienceVideo GamesDwayne Dixon5129acc1d78d02bed532993adeb2cc39f7be6920
The Physical Machine
12015-12-08T15:48:25-08:00Kevin Mellinc6bbb8b22406e725e89cecfb1fc0b4a2ca7393c872255plain2015-12-12T11:35:56-08:00Kevin Mellinc6bbb8b22406e725e89cecfb1fc0b4a2ca7393c8The most literal and common conception of the machine is the physical machine. This is typically a product of human innovation or a technological advancement, and its function is usually reliant on human use. For example, a hammer, computer and book have no real use until their purpose is fulfilled by human-machinic interaction. Because this common notion of the physical machine is generally understood, I will focus on illustrating a more elusive condition of the physical machine: when the machine becomes a separately independent entity. Marx discusses the impact of introducing the machine to the production world. The machine is able to do the work of the laborer more efficiently, which causes a rise in prevalence of mechanical production and greatly alters the role of the laborer. The worker loses autonomy in his or her craft and is forced to act vicariously through the machine. Marx describes this phenomena as follows: “the science which compels the inanimate limbs of the machinery, by their construction, to act purposefully, as an automaton, does not exist in the worker’s consciousness, but rather acts upon him through the machine as an alien power” (Marx 693). In this case, the physical machine replaces the function of the laborer and alters the laborer’s interaction with both the machine and their trade. Instead of assuming total dominion over their work, the task is completed regardless of their cognitive force or action; the laborer becomes separate from the labor itself. Thus, the laborer is expendable while labor becomes a commodity. Labor becomes a machine that can be universalized, bought and sold, and infinitely interchanged; the laborer no longer has to be particularly skilled in completing a task, but must rather merely oversee the mechanized completion. This is an example of the physical machine, a product of the abstract machine, undergoing auto-affirmation and metamorphosing into a separate entity from its human creators. This concept is termed fragmentation; read more here. Returning to the mp3 file, its final form, though physically intangible, indisputably exists. It upholds the characteristics of a physical machine, despite maintaining a rather conceptual existence; it is the product of innovation and is a consumable commodity. I have already established the abstract machine’s influence the mp3’s inception, which illustrates the non-sequential nature of inter-machinic interaction. The mp3 further proves that the physical or final form of a machine can exist in multifarious embodiments. Whether the product of innovation or a metamorphosed entity, the physical machine is a dynamic result and factor of the abstract machine.