Cashing in the chips
Dionne, E. J. Jr.
National affairs CASHING IN THE CHIPS WANTED: A SOBER LOOK AT HIGH TECH FOR POLITICIANS all over the Western world facing hard economic times, the words ""high tech'' have become a kind of...
...Fiber-optics and laser technology could make the invention of the telephone seem rather pedestrian...
...Zuhoff...
...If America becomes competitive again in these industries, pact of the process will inevitably involve replacing people with machines, if the uniting are to survive they will have to conquer the new industries...
...And computers are changing the nature of work in ways that many employees find exceedingly unpleasant...
...Fewer and fewer people will be able to produce more and more Many people will be put out of work...
...The amount of infomation that can be carried on tiny little chips is staggering...
...For example, n would be far better to have robots doing boring jobs...
...but they'll never be the same again...
...But those who seek and humane workplaces must avoid Staking the opposite mistake by trying to halt technological progress in its tracks...
...In her thoughtful Dissent article, Zuboff notes that it is the very purpose of the ''intellectual technology at the core of a computer system" to replace the individual judgments of human beings with "algorithms and decision rules...
...Some mistrust the new technology simply because it seems to be growing fastest in capitalist societies...
...But there have been people on the left who have argued that the desire for consumer goods is .some form of alienation...
...Slur Mara technology will permit the Western industrial empiie in strike back...
...And there has always been a romantic element of leftist thought that sees industrialism, technology, and capitalism as of a single piece, creating alienated and unhappy human beings...
...but what do we do with all the people the robots will replace...
...If your heavy industry is going bust, the promise of microchips, computers, and robotics seems especially allur-ing, No wonder that almost every governor in the country wants to make his state the center of the high-tech industry It all sounds clean, modern, productive...
...For those who actually write the decision rules, the work might be quite interesting...
...The challenge is to program words like liberty equality...
...amidst the jargon, left as with some memorable terms...
...1 ewei and fewer people will be able to produce more and mi <k Man> people will be put out of work...
...democracy into the souls of those new machines...
...In These Times recently reported on the ways in which the new technology was fostering not liberation but alienation...
...if should not be...
...Others want to shore up old-fashioned heavy industry because that'.s one of the few places outside of government where trade unions are still strong...
...Still, the critics of the new technology are also asking WANTED: A SOBER LOOK AT HIGH TECH FOR POLITICIANS all over the Western world facing hard economic times, the words "high tech'' have become a kind of magical incantation...
...For all but the most sophisticated among us, it has an clement of that old blues line.' 'Something's going on, but I don't know what it is.'' The potential reach of high tech is such that it is hard to imagine what it will make our homes and workplaces look like in fifty or a hundred years...
...Word pmiessurs have given writers and printers enormous new fil-Mhiliiy (I wrote a thesis on a word processor and it sure be in typing and retyping sixteen drafts...
...Zuhoff...
...the telegraph, and the au tomobile- did m the past, can just as readily constitute - in a socialist socictv the decisive instrument of liberation...
...Commodity fetishism" has always struck me as an odd phrase I've never been able to understand why it is wrong for a worker to want a ncu car 01 an electric dishwasher...
...Given the potential of high tech (and my description is nothing compared to the breathless panegyrics of its ardent advocates), much of the criticism of it by unions and as-sorted lefties seems like the carping of Luddites- And it is important to recognize that there arc Luddite elements on the left...
...And in many ways, the new technology is exiiiing I he idea of using robots instead of people for repeuiiu- work holds within it the promise of liberation...
...We don't want to write off our car and steel industries...
...According to the printer, the difference between "hot and cold type" is that cold type "has no blood and doesn't null) need people at all...
...Not only can this not be done...
...At the most Iumc level, much of the new technology promises what will quite literally be a major shift in power from labor to capn.il human beings will be replaced by machines...
...It all sounds clean, modern, productive...
...However" he goes on,"we must remember that data processing which arouses the same mistrust and the same ambitions as punting, railways...
...Word processors have given writers and printers enormous new flexibility...
...Some mistrust the new technology simply because it seems to be growing fastest in capitalist societies...
...France's president, Francois Mitterand, offered some thoughtful words en high tech in his recently published book, The What and the Chaff (Seaver Books, $16.95, 284 pp ). On the one hand, Mitterrand sees the dangers of the technological leap we are taking...
...Shoshanah Zuyboff in Dissent did David Moberg in the iadependent socialist weekly newspaper...
...Shoshanah Zuyboff in Dissent diid David Moberg in the iadependent socialist weekly neespaper In These Times recently reported on the ways in which the new technology was fostering not liberation but alienation...
...At the most basic level, much of the new technology promises what will quite literally be a major shift in power from labor to capital human beings will be replaced by machines...
...Nothing in the official proposals [he was referring to those of his picdcccssors in government] prepares lot those transformations...
...With the new technology he writes, "inequality will be increased between those who cannol manipulate the data-processing tool, and be-tween those who control its development and those who must submit to it " Moreover, he notes that ''increased automation will lead to the elimination of innumerable jobs, chiefly in the white-collar category: post office, secretarial, and office workers...
...Fiber-optics and laser ttvhnolog> could make the invention of the telephone seem raiher pedestrian...
...Others want to shore up old-fashioned heavy industry because that'.s one of the few places outside of government where trade unions are still strong...
...how to master them without stifling their devel-opment E. J. DOINNE, JR...
...for example, cited the case of a printer who moved from "a big printing contraption" to a video display terminal...
...And there has always been a rom.mtic element of leftist thought that sees industrialism, technology, and capitalism as of a single piece, creating alienated and unhappy human beings...
...Data processing, biology, nuclear physics: The great fields of knowledge aic open to conquistadors setting our in the name of democracy" Those are good words from an eloquent politician, In democratics countries - whether they call themselves capitalist or socialist - the new technology has already altered our language and...
...Still, the critics of the new technology are also asking -some very good questions...
...Moberg noted that users of video display terminals suffered from eyes train, back pains, headaches, and stress...
...And in many ways, the new technology is exciting The idea of using robots instead of people for repetitive- work holds within it the promise of liberation...
...Star Wars technology will permit the Western industrial empire to strike back...
...writes regularly on politics for Com monweal...
...What to make of the new technology...
...Commodity fetishism" has always struck me as an odd phrase I've never been able to understand why it is wrong for a worker to want a new car or an electric dishwasher...
...Another way to put it is how do we fairly distribute the fruits of the enormous gains that the new technology will bring...
...it would be well if these question become part of our political debate before we go off and give "high tech" a blanket endorsement, without knowledge what is or meant...
...The unions would also do well to face up to the challenge at the technological transformation that we afoot...
...I wrote a thesis on a word processor and it sure beats typing and retyping sixteen drafts...
...Unfortunately, many of those who now talk the most about the high technology industry - especially in politics - prefer to think of it aimply as a panacea...
...Those who merely use the machines, however, often find that they take a lot of the joy out of There are but a few of the question that should become part of the political and economic debate over the next decade...
...Thea there is the question of how the new m.u nines affect people...
...Then there is the question of how the new machines affect people...
...Given the potential of high tech (and my description is advocates), much of the criticism of it by unions and as-soiicii lefties seems like the carping of Luddites- And it is important to recognize that there arc Luddite elements on the left...
...The amount of inlcrnuition that can be carried on tiny little chips is staggcrni" But on the political left, the new technology heeds a good deal of/Skepticism and fear...
...What to make of the new technology...
...National affairs CASHING IN THE CHIPS WANTED: A SOBER LOOK AT HIGH TECH FOR POLITICIANS all over the Western world facing hard economic times, the words ""high tech'' have become a kind of magical inc muiion If your heavy industry is going bust, the prompt <if microchips, computers, and robotics seems especial illui-ifig, No wonder that almost every governor in the Luinir wants to make his state the center of the high-tech industries...
...According to the printer, the difference between "hot and cold type" is that cold type "has no blood and doesn't really need people at all...
...For all but the most sophisticated among us, it has an clement of that old blues line.' 'Something's going on, but I don't know what it is.'' The potential reach of high tech is such that it is hard to imagine what it will make our homes and workplaces look like in fifty or a hundred years...
...But there have been people on the left who have argued that the desire for consumer goods is .some form of alienation...
...Moberg noted that users of video display terminals suffered from eyes train, back pains, headaches, and stress...
...There will be fewer repetitive tasks, more direct responsi-bility, greater productivity, and a new upsurge of expansion Pioviing, naturally that a coherent political and cultural program is able to embrace this technological rev olution, to define its uses, master its development...
...for example, cited the case of a printer who moved from "a big printing contraption" to a video display terminal...
...E.J Doinne, Jr...
...But on the political left, the new technology breeds a good deal of skepticism and fear...
Vol. 109 • December 1982 • No. 21
