When the vast web woven by algorithms shrouds our lives, when fragmented entertainment becomes the only "rest" option, and when every swipe and click we make produces value for capital for free—we in the digital age seem to have more freedom, but in reality, we are being quietly swept up in a hidden colonization. Behind the educational rat race, work alienation, and comprehensive datafication of life lies the deep control of digital capital over the entire process of labor force production, as well as the systematic appropriation of all human life time.
Based on the fundamentals of Marxist political economy, this book builds on the macro diagnosis of The Contemporary Dimension Upgrade of Capital and the foundational argument on value origin in Only One Source: On Living Labor and Value Creation. It adopts a dual analytical framework of the "exploitation chain in the work sphere" and the "exploitation chain in the life sphere" to deeply dissect the core exploitation mechanisms of digital capitalism. We will clearly see how digital capital has broken through the exploitation boundaries of the industrial age and built an interlocking, self-reinforcing exploitation closed loop: in the workplace, the oppression of fast pace and around-the-clock availability erases the boundary between work and life, driving laborers into the "false rest" trap designed by capital; in daily life, fragmented entertainment represented by short videos, draped in the cloak of "learning and connection," turns countless users into unpaid data producers amid seemingly free usage.
This book will expose the capital deception of digital technology, overturn the false attribution that "individual weakness of will leads to being captured," and reveal how digital capital turns technology into a tool of colonization—transforming exploitation from explicit factory oppression into implicit control that permeates every corner of life. More importantly, beyond criticism, this book points out a path of breakthrough for us in the digital wave: before the arrival of a total revolution, how to take "algorithm transparency, platform transformation, and data compensation" as entry points, recapture the actual control ability of labor force production in the cracks of capital rule, awaken the colonized subjectivity of life, and find our own life space unprogrammed by capital.
This is not only a hardcore deconstruction of the exploitation logic of digital capitalism, but also a practical guide that cares for the life conditions of contemporary people. It provides thinking and direction for everyone who feels swept up by the digital wave and longs to break free from the shackles of capital, helping them understand their situation and resist actively.
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