Abstract：Algorithmic fetishism represents a profound contemporary transformation of commodity fetishism. In the digital-intelligence era, algorithms have evolved from auxiliary management tools into covert systems of power, giving rise to new forms of labor alienation. No longer mere technical instruments for efficiency optimization, algorithms now function as invisible social forces that autonomously formulate rules, allocate resources, and assign value. Labor alienation, likewise, has transcended external surveillance in physical spaces, embedding itself deeply into the foundational structures of individual cognition, behavioral choices, and self-identity. By predetermining architectural frameworks, algorithms dissolve labor autonomy; through data surveillance, they enact predictive control; and via platform monopolies, they fracture labor relations into fragmented units. Human social relationships are reductively translated into ostensibly scientific, “optimal” technical computations, while capital’s power is concealed beneath the veneer of technological neutrality. This creates a structural rupture between the highly socialized and public nature of digital labor production processes, and the privatized platform control over the appropriation and distribution of labor outcomes. Consequently, the alienation of labor products extends beyond material spheres into cognitive, emotional, and relational domains, breeding algorithmic fetishism. More insidiously, platforms internalize performance metrics as workers’ value standards through gamified labor mechanisms, escalating Marx’s “dead labor dominating living labor” into cognitive exploitation where “code captures consciousness.” Whether digital-intelligent technologies deepen human subjugation or pave the way for free, holistic development hinges on the social relations governing technology. Only by liberating digital tools from capital’s logic can alienated digital labor be reclaimed as genuinely creative human praxis.
陈艳波, 张乾. 从算法权力到算法拜物教：数字劳动异化的生成及扬弃[J]. 《深圳大学学报》（人文社科版）, 2026, 43(4): 141-150.
CHEN Yan-bo, ZHANG Qian. From Algorithmic Power to Algorithmic Fetishism: The Emergence and Sublation of Digital Labor Alienation. , 2026, 43(4): 141-150.
2026, Vol. 43 
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