Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False Promise? With a Note on the Evolution of Machinery

In this study, the implications and limits of Industry 4.0 project will be discussed. Industry 4.0 is a European project that aims to integrate digital networks and manufacturing process with the whole commodity-value chain by using sensors and cyber-physical sys- tems, that is, the integration of computation, networking, and physical processes. In order to understand the Digital Age, the study will first examine Marx’s analysis of evolution of Machinery and the social relations that produce this machinery. This will pave the way for conceptualizing automation and artificial intelligence as the key elements of Industry 4.0. After analysing the origins and social context of Industry 4.0 project, the study will discuss the implications and limits of the “Industry 4.0 initiative”. The discussion is built over some crucial questions: If the whole process is digitalized and controlled by computer algorithms as projected, can the industrial production as a whole be optimized and integrated? Do the Big Data and analytics make “online capitalism” possible? On the condition of the contradicting interests and profits in capitalist competition, is it possible to think optimi- zation only as a technical problem? Does “the invisible hand” of the market become visible by the Big Data gathered from cyber-physical systems? By discussing these questions, the study will criticise the blackboxing of “algorithms”, “optimization” paradigms of the Industry 4.0 discourse. It will argue that blackboxing the “algorithms”, “cyber-physical systems” or “Big Data and Analytics” would not hide the problem of agency, the actors seeking for profit particularly under real-time competition. In the end, the study will sug- gest that the project would be a false promise for capitalism but an important possibility for another world. Keywords: Industry 4.0, Cybernetics, Babbage, capitalist competition JEL Codes: O14, O25, O30, L86, P16, N14