technology. As anything becomes more complex, it becomes 
less specialized. Man is more complex and less specialized than 
a dinosaur. The older mechanical operations were designed to 
be more efficient as they became larger and more specialized. 
The electric and automated unit, however, is quite otherwise. A 
new automatic machine for making automobile tailpipes is 
about the size of two or three office desks. The computer 
control panel is the size of a lectern. It has in it no dies, no 
fixtures, no settings of any kind, but rather certain general-
purpose things like grippers, benders, and advancers. On this 
machine, starting with lengths of ordinary pipe, it is possible to 
make eighty different kinds of tailpipe in succession, as rapidly, 
as easily, and as cheaply as it is to make eighty of the same 
kind. And the characteristic of electric automation is all in this 
direction of return to the general-purpose handicraft flexibility 
that our own hands possess. The programming can now