ABSTRACT
In this paper, a critical theory of algorithms is introduced to provide a means of understanding algorithms and computation. It is an approach that refuses to ignore and smooth over contradictions and contradictory claims and attempts to grasp the dynamic moment of the subject. To do this it looks at two case studies, one examining mental labour and the other physical labour. The first looks at the way in which social conflict is embedded within the machinery of algorithms and labour is transformed into a commodity through an interface. In the second, the interface-machinery dichotomy is examined to see how it informs many attempts to discipline labour and enables radical attempts to objectify computation in the physical world. The chapter argues that by contesting the invisibility of algorithmic infrastructures and critique infrasomatizations, the exploitation of labour-power offers a critical lever to crack open the black-box of computational capitalism.
