Fetishism as Commodity: efficacy and vampirism in the age of cognitive capitalismo

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of digital technologies (DTs) on the relations of production and the reproduction of life within the framework of cognitive capitalism, from the perspective of historical-dialectical materialism. It aims to demonstrate how capitalist appropriation transforms knowledge, communication, affections, and emotions into productive resources, thereby intensifying exploitation. The study employs an exploratory method based on Marxist categories such as fetishism, real subsumption of labor, and the labor theory of value, applied to the context of digital platforms and artificial intelligence. The results reveal that DTs deepen fetishism by concealing living labor beneath the appearance of algorithmic autonomy, while converting everyday activities into sources of unpaid value. It concludes that, although DTs enhance productivity, their commodified logic reinforces domination, demanding forms of resistance that reclaim the digital commons as an alternative to private appropriation.