Platforms of Proletarianization

AStA Uni Hamburg
Von-Melle-Park 5
Room 0029

Digital platforms are not neutral tools but technological forms that actively shape human perception, sociality and sensibility. Drawing on the work of Günther Anders, Theodor W. Adorno, Bernard Stiegler and Jonathan Crary, Russell develops the concept of “platforms of proletarianization” to describe how digital communication technologies regiment cognitive, perceptual and affective capacities. Russell will contend that platform communication operates according to an “agitational logic” driven by visibility, immediacy and quantitative engagement, which erodes reflection, sustained attention, memory and contemplative experience through what he calls a “violence of topicality.” Ultimately, the presentation will argue that digital platforms intensify forms of human obsolescence not because machines become human-like, but because human behavior increasingly adapts itself to machinic prediction, optimization and regimentation.

Eric-John Russell is a researcher specializing in the areas of German Idealism, Hegelian Marxism and Frankfurt School Critical Theory. He is Editor in Chief of the Marx & Philosophy Review of Books and a founding editor of Cured Quail.