Automation, Economics, Species

Insofar as a shovel can be used to dig a garden, the manufacturing of one exemplifies Marx's concept of the uniquely human practice of producing the means of satisfying needs.  Also, its handle reflects that it is designed to be used by the uniquely evolved human hand.  But, many tools far exceed those characteristics--automated tools.  The Economic significance of them, according to Marx, is the possibility of replacing human labor, and not merely abetting it.  Similarly, some automation can function without the unique human thumb.  So, what is missed in both the Marxist and the Evolutionist appreciations of automation is the basic function of the great increase in productive capacity, and, hence, in the capacity to the mass satisfaction of needs.  Nor does Capitalism, even though Smith's concept of Division of Labor anticipates the former capacity, appreciate the latter capacity, since the primary value of automation according to the doctrine is as an opportunity for profit.  Thus, what has gotten lost in the incorporation of automation into Economics over the past few centuries is that it expresses a not necessarily exclusively human impulse--a species drive, comparable to, say, a honeycomb.