virtual class

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        <b>Fuller: In your new book, 'The Factory of Unhappiness' you describe a class formation, 
        the 'cognitariat' - a conflation of cognitive worker and proletarian, working in 
        'so-called jobs'. You've also previously used the idea of the 'Virtual Class'. What are 
        the qualities of the cognitariat and how might they be distinguished from this slightly 
        higher strata depicted by Kroker and Weinstein in 'Data Trash'? </b>
      
      
        
      
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        <b>Bifo: I like to refer to the concept of virtual class, which is a class that does not 
        actually exist. It is only the abstraction of the fractal ocean of productive 
        micro-actions of the cognitive workers. It is a useful concept, but it does not comprehend 
        the social and bodily existence of those people who perform virtual tasks. The social 
        existence of virtual workers is not virtual, the sensual body of the virtual worker is not 
        virtual. So I prefer to speak about cognitive proletariat (cognitariat) in order to 
        emphasize the material (I mean physical, psychological, neurological) disease of the 
        workers involved in the net-economy. </b>
      
      
        
      
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