The CIO Faces Automation

One of the most singular advantages we derive from machinery
is in the check which it affords against the inattention, idleness,
or the knavery of human agents.
CHARLES BABBAGE, The Economy of Machinery, 1832.

The unequivocal statement can be made that creative talents
can’t be automatized. But the operations analyst doesn’t find
man actually called upon for creative ability in manufacturing
operations. The analyst is willing to go farther and say that
man’s creative desire is a troublesome factor when man acts on
the basis of creative ability in lieu of following instructions.
PHILIP R. MARVIN in Automation, April 1954.

From 1947 to 1953 the output of the electronics industry in the United States increased 275 per cent. Over the same period employment of labor in the industry increased only 40 per cent. At the end of 1954, when electronics production was about equal to the peak of 1953, nine per cent fewer workers were employed and the average work week had fallen almost an hour. Commenting on the situation last March, A...