Abstract

This paper shows how to describe the human-machine interaction through semiotic metalanguage. The machine is seen as an addresser, which modalizes the action of the subject through deontic and/or epistemic operators. This way, complex human-machine devices can be deconstructed as chains of modal enunciations that constitute disciplinary apparatus, focusing on the immanent structure of jobs, in a way that seems to differ from a phenomenological point of view. These devices try to realize a perfect hierarchical order in which the machine is the constant and the human being is the variable, thus revealing their bio-political relevance. The economic crisis corresponds, to a large extent, to stricter disciplinary politics implemented in order to raise the rate of exploitation of labour.