This technological transformation is a shift from direct, individual labor to mediated, social labor, first represented and made possible by the factory, but perpetually striving to reach new height, because, lest we forget, the great value of labor (for everyone involved) lies within its social character. Machines produce value by their very existence (though they do need to be in use) and by further distorting the ratio of surplus labor to necessary labor. Still, unintentionally (how else?) machinery “reduces human labor, expenditure of energy, to a minimum.”
I lift a finger, strike a key, and in conjunction with billions upon billions of dollars worth of processing power and hundreds of millions of intelligent actors, both human and machine, scattered all across the world, I enact change, solve problems, and create value in an instant.