alt Hacker NewsAs someone who has not read Marx you can clarify - how does it matter who controls the technology? The industrial revolution was not controlled by labour, it still mattered.
Marxism fundamentally is: productive forces change the society, meaning the technology that exists at that point in time shapes the way people think.
From what I read (which is also not much), wikipedia has a good summary, I think:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means_of_production#Marxism_an...
Yes, technological improvements are an important factor, but not a purely positive one:
> In Marx's work and subsequent developments in Marxist theory, the process of socioeconomic evolution is based on the premise of technological improvements in the means of production. As the level of technology improves with respect to productive capabilities, existing forms of social relations become superfluous and unnecessary as the advancement of technology integrated within the means of production contradicts the established organization of society and its economy.
In particular:
> According to Marx, escalating tension between the upper and lower class is a major consequence of technology decreasing the value of labor force and the contradictory effect an evolving means of production has on established social and economic systems. Marx believed increasing inequality between the upper and lower classes acts as a major catalyst of class conflicts[...]
> Ownership of the means of production and control over the surplus product generated by their operation is the fundamental factor in delineating different modes of production. [capitalism, communism, etc]