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07251_Field_TCUM T816.txt
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1996-04-10
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910b
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16 lines
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