RCRG
Syndicate
] "Our task now is to learn how to use the technology we've invented, rather than allow it to use us, so that it improves our human connections, and does not replace them."
"If we are not machines, random accidents in the evolutionary chain, we need to have a sense of direction." (p. 263)
"History may well judge that Taylor came before his time. His principles of scientific management make superb sense for organizing production when robots rather than human beings are the main productive force, when organizations can truly become machines." (p. 33)
"He is part of the machine, rather than its master as an active agent. The machine, instead of being in his service to do work for him which once had to be performed by sheer physical energy, has become his master. Instead of the machine being the substitute for human energy, man has become a substitute for the machine. His work can be defined as the performance of acts which cannot yet be performed by machines." (p. 180)
Within a few short years, mechanization, automation, and computerization have changed the nature of work so completely that the machine has now become the worker. Now also--incredible irony--the machine dictates the work arrangements of the human accomplice. Instead of the human controlling the machine, as has been the case during the early years of technological development, the human is forced to adapt to and serve the rythyms of the machine." (p. 177)