Technology and Intellectual Labor in Primo Levi's Short Story “The Versifier”

Abstract

ABSTRACT We live in a context marked by the ubiquity of technologies, a condition that poses significant challenges to both society and science education. Although widely recognized for his testimonial literature, Primo Levi produced an extensive body of work at the intersection of science and literature that remains underexplored in Brazil and in the field of science education. In this regard, the present study identifies relationships between technology and intellectual labor in Primo Levi's short story The Versifier, with the aim of fostering critical reflections on the appropriation of artificial intelligence in educational processes. The analyses were organized into four categories: (i) the structure and poetic freedom of the chem-writer; (ii) contemporary demands of the world of work; (iii) the influence of technology on the organization and ways of life of society; and (iv) between the neutral tool and surrender to pervasive automatism. We suggest that the analyzed short story may contribute to a science education concerned with the scientific, technological, cultural, social, and human dimensions of society.