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07236_Field_TCUM T801.txt
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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