programs of industrial mechanization; but, at the same time, it 
locks the minds and senses of its users in the mechanical and 
fragmentary matrix that is so necessary to the maintenance of 
mechanized society. That is why the transition from mechanical 
to electric technology is so very traumatic and severe for us all. 
The mechanical techniques, with their limited powers, we have 
long used as weapons. The electric techniques cannot be used 
aggressively except to end all life at once, like the turning off of 
a light. To live with both of these technologies at the same 
time is the peculiar drama of the twentieth century.

     In his Education Automation , R. Buckminster Fuller 
considers that weaponry has been a source of technological 
advance for mankind because it requires continually improved 
performance with ever smaller means. “As we went from the 
ships of the sea to the ships of the air, the performance per