The same thing happens less superficially when the 
electric principle crosses the mechanical lines of industrial 
organization. Automation retains only as much of the 
mechanical character as the motorcar kept of the forms of the 
horse and the carriage. Yet people discuss automation as if we 
had not passed the oat barrier, and as if the horse-vote at the 
next poll would sweep away the automation regime.

     Automation is not an extension of the mechanical 
principles of fragmentation and separation of operations. It is 
rather the invasion of the mechanical world by the 
instantaneous character of electricity. That is why those 
involved in automation insist that it is a way of thinking, as 
much as it is a way of doing. Instant synchronization of 
numerous operations has ended the old mechanical pattern of 
setting up operations in lineal sequence. The assembly line has