before the assembly line, there was the plantation. division of labor, “deskilling”, surveillant control were already well developed.

“free”, as opposed to enslaved, labor presented an opportunity and a challenge. “free”-dom cld legitimate the organization of surplus value extraction as an outcome of worker “choice”, rather than the slave’s coercion. but organizing a similar efficiency of extraction presented a sociotechnological problem

see @Mer__edith logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/or ht @andrewhinton