Deconstruction | Jacques Derrida

Image Caption: Pharmacies often use dispencing robots to assit in the cataloging and dispencing of drugs. This automated system allows for increased reliability and makes the system more efficient, saving time and money.

11. Socialism | Karl Marx | The Principles of Communism | 1969

“The Principles of Communism”1 exposed the nature of society under the dominance of the bourgeoisie. In the sentence "labor is a commodity"1, Marx was trying to express his thinking about the labor value from the perspective of economics. He believed that labor had the same use-value and value as commodities.2 There were two conditions for the interpretation of labor. First, the owner of labor was a free man who can freely control his own labor. Second, the owner of labor had nothing but his own labor and had to rely on selling labor on the market.2 It revealed the nature that the working people at the bottom were destined to be exploited under the society where capital decided everything.

Just as what Marx observed in the 19th century: "capital is the decisive power"1. This fact had basically not changed in today's society. What Marx did not expect was that before the capitalist social system was completely subverted, the world was experiencing the Fourth Industrial Revolution3. Due to the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics, the labor itself was the first to undergo subversive changes4 .

The first thing that was changed about labor was the liberalization of the location of work. Employees could access their mobile applications through their mobile devices. It allowed them to get rid of the shackles of the workplace and carry out work anytime, anywhere.4 The second is the change in the role of labor. As artificial intelligence was increasingly applied to work, some of the more traditional roles would be subverted, but at the same time, the demand for knowledge-based and cognition-based job roles in enterprises was increasing.4 Third, the demand for the skills of the labor itself was also changed. The demand for laborintensive work would be reduced, but the demand for knowledge-intensive work would be increased under the new digital working models. The skills to solve complex problems, innovative thinking, and proficiency in the use of computers and software would also become necessary for the labor in the near future.4

Because of the transformation of labor, some of the social factors that Marx believed to promote social change might be absent.1 For example, the decrease in physical labor and the increase in remote employees might lead to a reduction in the concentration of the proletariat. With the society changed, if the necessary conditions for abolishing private property would no longer exist? This question might only be answered by time.

1.Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “The Principles of Communism,” in The Communist Manifesto, Marx/Engels Selected Works, Vol. I, (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1969,) 41—54. 2.Karl Marx, “The Transformation of the Value of Labour-Power into Wages,” in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1959). 3.“The Future of Jobs Report,” World Economic Forum, accessed 2018, http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf. 4.Morgan R Frank, “Toward Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Labor,” PNAS 116 (14) (April 2019), https://doi.org/1 0.1073/pnas.1900949116.