electric automation. In the case of electricity, as energy for 
production becomes independent of the work operation, there 
is not only the speed that makes for total and organic 
interplay, but there is, also, the fact that electricity is sheer 
information that, in actual practice, illuminates all it touches. 
Any process that approaches instant interrelation of a total 
field tends to raise itself to the level of conscious awareness, so 
that computers seem to “think.” In fact, they are highly 
specialized at present, and quite lacking in the full process of 
interrelation that makes for consciousness. Obviously, they can 
be made to simulate the process of consciousness, just as our 
electric global networks now begin to simulate the condition of 
our central nervous system. But a conscious computer would 
still be one that was an extension of our consciousness, as a 
telescope is an extension of our eyes, or as a ventriloquist’s 
dummy is an extension of the ventriloquist.