Link: “The Utopian Promise of Self-Checkout Machines”
As these futurists saw it, technology would eliminate all kinds of boring and arduous work — making life easier for human beings and freeing up labor time in the process. Today, the self-checkout machine represents the paradox of technology and automation under capitalism: the very tools that could make life simpler and more rewarding threatening workers’ livelihoods and, in many cases, actually expanding the power of bosses to surveil and mete out discipline in the interests of profit.
Jessica Smith is a socialist and a feminist who loves animals, books, gaming, and cooking; she’s also interested in linguistics, history, technology and society.