JimK
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2003
- Location
- Berkeley Springs, WV, USA
In the late 1970's and early 1980's a confluence of events in the electronics industry led to the manufacture of digital computers that were small, fast, powerful and cheap.
No Futurist saw this coming. Predictions were for Mainframes with Menory Banks that grew steadily more Awsome in size and complexity.
Not even the most forward thinking would dream of computer systems so common that children would not only run them, but would graduate to larger systems as they would do with bicycles as they grew.
No one saw that the publication of computer programs would not only dwarf the publication of Literatrue and Music, but would rival the production of Oil, Coal and Steel in its financial might.
All this has happened in just Twenty-some Years. an Historical Blink of the Eye.
Most of us are Involved In, Distracted By and Obsessed With the Here and Now. We have been Overtaken by Events and we haven't had time to begin to comprehend what has happened in the relm of Society, Culture and Work.
I wish to propose a New Definition:
Superautomation.
Superautomation is not mechanization, the application of labor saving devices.
Superautomation is not Automation, having machines control themselves through their limited operatons.
Superautomation is characterized by the fact that it:
Takes the Hand of the Artisan from The Craft.
Removes the Human Hand from the Product.
and Eventually Removes the Worker from The Workplace.
Superautomation is the combination of Organization, Mechanization and Automation Taken to the Extreme.
As with aything taken to extremes, especially those things taken to extremes Quckly, there must come a time of analyzing the overall effects.
American society on the whole, not just manufactrers, has led the world in the relm of superautomation, and yet we Americans seem to refuse to analyze the consequences that are now presenting themselves as seemingly un correlated problems.
It is a central tenet of our societal code that automation increases productivity and lowers the cost of goods. The resulting increase in demand provides expansion of industry, yielding more jobs.
We Americans dare not criticise Automation.
In History, others have.
Cyrus McCormick couldn't sell his
Reaper in Eastern Europe and Russia. Wealthy estate owners as late as 1906 would not displace the thousands of farm workers that populated the land. The economy of the region had no Industry, Transportation was Primitive, and society was bound together by The Church and the Farm.
My mother was born in such a place. I heard the stories first hand.
Even in the USA, most farms were pathetically behind times. The farm my Father grew up on Never saw a Tractor. To hear him tell it, the farm never had any but tired out old horses.
"Modern American Industry" is somewhat of a fantasy. When I was 20 years old (1964) I visited Gardner Machine Co, in Gardner, Mass. Every machine in the shop was belt driven from a big electric motor in the back of the shop. They were still using "monitor lathes" (turet lathes with round turrets). The shop had more shapers than it had milling machines.
This was an operating business. My friend's father worked there for years, He would not work elsewhere, he loved the place.
In 1970, I toured Hardinge Brothers in Elmira, N.Y. I saw one, maybe two N.C. machines. The Hands of the Men of Hardinge made The Hardinge Lathe!
In 1976, I toured the Mack Truck Engine Plant in Hagerstown, Maryland. The majority of the equipment was specialized block and head production machinery, but I was amazed by the amont of hand work being done. The men were Directly Involved with Diesel Engine Making!
Pratt & Whitney, Heald Machine, Blanchard, ATF Webendorfer (printing presses) New Holland Machine (ag. Equip.) Even IBM! - everywhere I went, the hands of the craftsmen were at the craft.
The Plans for the 747, the Trident Sumarine and The Rocket to the Moon were drawn on drafting boards. Many of the calculations were "slipped off" on Slide Rules.
N.C. machines were reserved only for the big parts or the super complicated ones. N.C. was too unreliable then for dependable production of ordinary parts.
There seemed to be a tacit understanding that automation was good only if it resulted in expansion and prosperity for the company.
Now, as Masters of Superautomation, why is the USA in such a bind?
It is now almost routine to be able to draw any part and then make it without so much as lifting a pencil or putting a tool in a machine spindle.
Yet we complain about the country loosing its manufacturing base.
There are no medium sized sheet fed offset printing presses manufactured in the USA.
There are few if any agricultural tractors made in the USA any more.
There are precious few machine tools made in the USA.
The superautomation that was to be our Exaltation has become our Detriment.
The leaders of our commerce and industry as well as the leaders of our government haven't exercised the wisdom of a pre Revolution Russian Estste Owner.
As Lords of Our Land, they have made the mistake of displacing thousands of workers. The mistake may have Mortal consequences.
General Motors is going into 20 billion dollars' debt to pay its retirement obligations. GM says it has 5 retired people for every 2 current workers.
Couldn't GM see that automated equipment doesn't pay into retirement funds?
How could they believe that reducing their workforce would lead to prosperity for their company?
Would they not be better off if they had ten workers for every five retired ones? They actually WERE when they last had that stuation!
Smaller companies than GM just throw up their hands and Go Out. Their retirement obligations are taken over by The Pension Guarantee Fund.
They flat Automated themselves Right out of Business - and they don't even know it.
It happened so fast.
The Lords of our Land in Government have failed to protect us from rapacious economic attack.
Their High Priests are still preaching Free Trade as millions of workers are displaced from shops all over.
Our Land is Bereft pf Printing Press Factories, of Tractor and Machine Tool Factories, of Steel Mills, Shoe Factories and Clothing Mills.
The damaged from the rapacity allowed to the free traders will be repaired only at frightful cost.
Already the USA has suffered the most profound attack since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
That Attack is the start of a series of long and costly campaigns and wars that we will be waging far into the future.
We are Not At Peace. We need a Call to Mobilization. The Day of Infamy was Two Years ago! Why are we waiting??
Where would the USA be if we waited two years after Dec 7, 1941?
Even the most Doltish Feudal Land Lord would have raised an Army by now.
His Graneries would be full and his Armourers would be Hammering like Hell.
This is it - we are in The Calm Before The Storm.
I only hope that we end up with enough sense to fix the roof, get inside and close the windows.
No Futurist saw this coming. Predictions were for Mainframes with Menory Banks that grew steadily more Awsome in size and complexity.
Not even the most forward thinking would dream of computer systems so common that children would not only run them, but would graduate to larger systems as they would do with bicycles as they grew.
No one saw that the publication of computer programs would not only dwarf the publication of Literatrue and Music, but would rival the production of Oil, Coal and Steel in its financial might.
All this has happened in just Twenty-some Years. an Historical Blink of the Eye.
Most of us are Involved In, Distracted By and Obsessed With the Here and Now. We have been Overtaken by Events and we haven't had time to begin to comprehend what has happened in the relm of Society, Culture and Work.
I wish to propose a New Definition:
Superautomation.
Superautomation is not mechanization, the application of labor saving devices.
Superautomation is not Automation, having machines control themselves through their limited operatons.
Superautomation is characterized by the fact that it:
Takes the Hand of the Artisan from The Craft.
Removes the Human Hand from the Product.
and Eventually Removes the Worker from The Workplace.
Superautomation is the combination of Organization, Mechanization and Automation Taken to the Extreme.
As with aything taken to extremes, especially those things taken to extremes Quckly, there must come a time of analyzing the overall effects.
American society on the whole, not just manufactrers, has led the world in the relm of superautomation, and yet we Americans seem to refuse to analyze the consequences that are now presenting themselves as seemingly un correlated problems.
It is a central tenet of our societal code that automation increases productivity and lowers the cost of goods. The resulting increase in demand provides expansion of industry, yielding more jobs.
We Americans dare not criticise Automation.
In History, others have.
Cyrus McCormick couldn't sell his
Reaper in Eastern Europe and Russia. Wealthy estate owners as late as 1906 would not displace the thousands of farm workers that populated the land. The economy of the region had no Industry, Transportation was Primitive, and society was bound together by The Church and the Farm.
My mother was born in such a place. I heard the stories first hand.
Even in the USA, most farms were pathetically behind times. The farm my Father grew up on Never saw a Tractor. To hear him tell it, the farm never had any but tired out old horses.
"Modern American Industry" is somewhat of a fantasy. When I was 20 years old (1964) I visited Gardner Machine Co, in Gardner, Mass. Every machine in the shop was belt driven from a big electric motor in the back of the shop. They were still using "monitor lathes" (turet lathes with round turrets). The shop had more shapers than it had milling machines.
This was an operating business. My friend's father worked there for years, He would not work elsewhere, he loved the place.
In 1970, I toured Hardinge Brothers in Elmira, N.Y. I saw one, maybe two N.C. machines. The Hands of the Men of Hardinge made The Hardinge Lathe!
In 1976, I toured the Mack Truck Engine Plant in Hagerstown, Maryland. The majority of the equipment was specialized block and head production machinery, but I was amazed by the amont of hand work being done. The men were Directly Involved with Diesel Engine Making!
Pratt & Whitney, Heald Machine, Blanchard, ATF Webendorfer (printing presses) New Holland Machine (ag. Equip.) Even IBM! - everywhere I went, the hands of the craftsmen were at the craft.
The Plans for the 747, the Trident Sumarine and The Rocket to the Moon were drawn on drafting boards. Many of the calculations were "slipped off" on Slide Rules.
N.C. machines were reserved only for the big parts or the super complicated ones. N.C. was too unreliable then for dependable production of ordinary parts.
There seemed to be a tacit understanding that automation was good only if it resulted in expansion and prosperity for the company.
Now, as Masters of Superautomation, why is the USA in such a bind?
It is now almost routine to be able to draw any part and then make it without so much as lifting a pencil or putting a tool in a machine spindle.
Yet we complain about the country loosing its manufacturing base.
There are no medium sized sheet fed offset printing presses manufactured in the USA.
There are few if any agricultural tractors made in the USA any more.
There are precious few machine tools made in the USA.
The superautomation that was to be our Exaltation has become our Detriment.
The leaders of our commerce and industry as well as the leaders of our government haven't exercised the wisdom of a pre Revolution Russian Estste Owner.
As Lords of Our Land, they have made the mistake of displacing thousands of workers. The mistake may have Mortal consequences.
General Motors is going into 20 billion dollars' debt to pay its retirement obligations. GM says it has 5 retired people for every 2 current workers.
Couldn't GM see that automated equipment doesn't pay into retirement funds?
How could they believe that reducing their workforce would lead to prosperity for their company?
Would they not be better off if they had ten workers for every five retired ones? They actually WERE when they last had that stuation!
Smaller companies than GM just throw up their hands and Go Out. Their retirement obligations are taken over by The Pension Guarantee Fund.
They flat Automated themselves Right out of Business - and they don't even know it.
It happened so fast.
The Lords of our Land in Government have failed to protect us from rapacious economic attack.
Their High Priests are still preaching Free Trade as millions of workers are displaced from shops all over.
Our Land is Bereft pf Printing Press Factories, of Tractor and Machine Tool Factories, of Steel Mills, Shoe Factories and Clothing Mills.
The damaged from the rapacity allowed to the free traders will be repaired only at frightful cost.
Already the USA has suffered the most profound attack since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
That Attack is the start of a series of long and costly campaigns and wars that we will be waging far into the future.
We are Not At Peace. We need a Call to Mobilization. The Day of Infamy was Two Years ago! Why are we waiting??
Where would the USA be if we waited two years after Dec 7, 1941?
Even the most Doltish Feudal Land Lord would have raised an Army by now.
His Graneries would be full and his Armourers would be Hammering like Hell.
This is it - we are in The Calm Before The Storm.
I only hope that we end up with enough sense to fix the roof, get inside and close the windows.
