SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic? -Daniel Ferrell Home Acceptance Corporation (NMLS #1151715). 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736
Automation deserves it's own bibliography. And depending how one defines the word (does it include autonomous technology?) it could be pretty extensive. Here's a few well known texts on the automation of work: Nicholas Carr, _The Glass Cage_ Martin Ford, _Rise of the Robots_ Barbara Garson, _How Computers Are Transforming The Office of the Future Into the Factory of the Past_ David Noble, _Progress Without People_ (especially chapter 4: 'Automation Madness') Matthew Crawford, _Shop Class as Soulcraft_ (especially his sections on the degradation of blue collar and white collar work) Frederick Winslow Taylor, _The Principles of Scientific Management_ (not really a book about automation per se. But it provides an important framework for understanding the belief systems that drive automation) Obviously there are many many more. But for an initial foray into the subject matter would this be a good place to start? What other texts would people put on this list? It sort of depends what sort of automation one is interested in exploring. Are you interested in the automation of work? Or are you interested in the literary representation of robots? Or are you interested in Langdon Winner's worries about autonomous technology and technology out of control? (a form of automation I suppose) Each of these flavors of automation would impel one to write up a bibliography with a different emphasis. Luke lfernandez.org On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 11:29 AM, Daniel Ferrell < returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com> wrote:
SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic?
*-Daniel Ferrell*
*Home Acceptance Corporation *(NMLS #1151715)*. * 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Here are some sources I've found helpful, albeit for a very particular set of questions around automation. Marxian Historians, Social Scientists: Nobel - Forces of Production (a one-time SHOT member) Braverman - Labor and Monopoly Capital Pollock - Automation: A Study of Its Social and Economic Consequences Influential Popular Writers: Rifkin - The End of Work Andre Gorz - Farewell to the Working Class Economists: Leontief, Autor, Brynjolfsson, McAfee Levy - The New Division of Labor Vivarelli - Innovation and Employment: A Survey Management Theorists: Herbert Simon - The Corporation: Will It be Managed by Machines? (published 1960) Drucker - The Practice of Management On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 1:29 PM, Daniel Ferrell <returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com
wrote:
SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic?
*-Daniel Ferrell*
*Home Acceptance Corporation *(NMLS #1151715)*. * 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
A few tangents you might explore: It's hard to overstate the influence of Norbert Wiener's *Cybernetics *(and popular writing like T*he Human use of Human Beings*) on subsequent management theorists. SHOT's very own David Allen Grier has written quite a lot on the labor processes used in scientific computing before and during the introduction of automatic computing machinery. These are not directly related to "automation" per se (which term was coined circa 1940) but I found them very helpful in providing historical context and illustrating the basic continuity of some tendencies in the technical division of labor from the pre- to post- automatic computing eras. Finally, SHOT's own Nathan Ensmenger recently published *The Computer Boys Take Over, *an invaluable history of some of the changes in occupational structure engendered by "computerization". It's particularly good on gender. On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Bjorn Westergard <bjornw@gmail.com> wrote:
Here are some sources I've found helpful, albeit for a very particular set of questions around automation.
Marxian Historians, Social Scientists: Nobel - Forces of Production (a one-time SHOT member) Braverman - Labor and Monopoly Capital Pollock - Automation: A Study of Its Social and Economic Consequences
Influential Popular Writers: Rifkin - The End of Work Andre Gorz - Farewell to the Working Class
Economists: Leontief, Autor, Brynjolfsson, McAfee Levy - The New Division of Labor Vivarelli - Innovation and Employment: A Survey
Management Theorists: Herbert Simon - The Corporation: Will It be Managed by Machines? (published 1960) Drucker - The Practice of Management
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 1:29 PM, Daniel Ferrell < returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com> wrote:
SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic?
*-Daniel Ferrell*
*Home Acceptance Corporation *(NMLS #1151715)*. * 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Bjorn (and others), Thanks for those cites. In your recollection which of these texts (or others if they come to mind) best detail what sectors of the labor force find their jobs more interesting as a result of the so-called computer revolution and what sectors find them less interesting? To this concern, in The Glass Cage Nicholas Carr suggests that some jobs, like being an airline pilot or a health worker, have been cognitively degraded by the introduction of automation. And he worries that this is just a harbinger of more degradation to come. Barbara Garson, in The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers Are Transforming The Office of the Future Into the Factory of the Past made similar observations in 1988, and Matthew Crawford in Shop Craft as Soul Craft (2009) argues (in passages that footnote Braverman and Garson) that the degradation that blue collar workers experienced with the advent of the assembly line and automation are now also being experienced by white collar workers. In a similar vein, Ben Sand, Paul Beaudry and David Green argue in _The great reversal in the demand for skill and cognitive tasks_ that the cognitive challenges that college graduates face in their jobs have been declining significantly since the year 2000: “high-skilled workers have moved down the occupational ladder and have begun to perform jobs traditionally performed by lower-skilled workers. This de-skilling process, in turn, results in high-skilled workers pushing lowskilled workers even further down the occupational ladder and, to some degree, out of the labor force all together.” [ http://www.economics.ubc.ca/files/2013/05/pdf_paper_paul-beaudry-great-rever... ] On the other hand I would guess that most of the people who subscribe to this listserv feel that their jobs are becoming more cognitively demanding rather than less. So what's going on? Does automation mean that (as Matthew Crawford argues) "genuine knowledge work comes to be concentrated in an ever smaller elite" while the rest of white collar workers become subject to a "rising sea of clerkdom?" Or is the story more complicated than the one Crawford and Carr recount? What texts should I read to better answer the question in my first paragraph? Sincerely, Luke http://lfernandez.org On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 4:30 PM, Bjorn Westergard <bjornw@gmail.com> wrote:
A few tangents you might explore:
It's hard to overstate the influence of Norbert Wiener's *Cybernetics *(and popular writing like T*he Human use of Human Beings*) on subsequent management theorists.
SHOT's very own David Allen Grier has written quite a lot on the labor processes used in scientific computing before and during the introduction of automatic computing machinery. These are not directly related to "automation" per se (which term was coined circa 1940) but I found them very helpful in providing historical context and illustrating the basic continuity of some tendencies in the technical division of labor from the pre- to post- automatic computing eras.
Finally, SHOT's own Nathan Ensmenger recently published *The Computer Boys Take Over, *an invaluable history of some of the changes in occupational structure engendered by "computerization". It's particularly good on gender.
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Bjorn Westergard <bjornw@gmail.com> wrote:
Here are some sources I've found helpful, albeit for a very particular set of questions around automation.
Marxian Historians, Social Scientists: Nobel - Forces of Production (a one-time SHOT member) Braverman - Labor and Monopoly Capital Pollock - Automation: A Study of Its Social and Economic Consequences
Influential Popular Writers: Rifkin - The End of Work Andre Gorz - Farewell to the Working Class
Economists: Leontief, Autor, Brynjolfsson, McAfee Levy - The New Division of Labor Vivarelli - Innovation and Employment: A Survey
Management Theorists: Herbert Simon - The Corporation: Will It be Managed by Machines? (published 1960) Drucker - The Practice of Management
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 1:29 PM, Daniel Ferrell < returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com> wrote:
SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic?
*-Daniel Ferrell*
*Home Acceptance Corporation *(NMLS #1151715)*. * 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
On this topic don’t neglect an important early work, based on considerable field work at sites where automation was occurring, by Shoshana Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, published in 1988. At the time Zuboff was a professor in the Harvard Business School. Joe Corn Senior Lecturer Emeritus Dept. of History Stanford University joecorn@stanford.edu Permanent Address: P.O. Box 1299 Sagamore Beach, MA 02562
It is such a huge topic; you somehow have to choose where to focus, and get to specific cases if you can. I was always fascinated by the role of General Electric, where Kurt Vonnegut worked as a technical writer and was inspired to write Player Piano by his experiences there. Ronald Reagan was a spokesperson for the company later on. When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. Their public affairs department orchestrated a careful campaign to show that the UNIVAC eliminated drudgery, but freed GE workers for more creative tasks. And they also had to justify the expense of this exotic machine for their shareholders, promising that it would increase profits. Prior to the UNIVAC installation in 1954, there was lots of talk about this, going back to the 1920s and 1930s, but now it was real. An article in the Harvard Business Review about the UNIVAC ended with this quote: “The Utopia of automatic production is inherently plausible. Indeed, the situation of the United States today, in which poverty has come to mean the absence of status symbols rather than hunger and physical misery, is awesomely favorable when measured against the budgetary experience of previous generations or the contemporary experience of most of the people living on the other continents.” All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor. Paul E. Ceruzzi, Curator Division of Space History, MRC 311 National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution PO Box 37012 Washington, DC 20013-7012 202-633-2414 http://airandspace.si.edu/staff/paul-ceruzzi From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Joe Corn Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 2:08 PM To: members@sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography On this topic don’t neglect an important early work, based on considerable field work at sites where automation was occurring, by Shoshana Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, published in 1988. At the time Zuboff was a professor in the Harvard Business School. Joe Corn Senior Lecturer Emeritus Dept. of History Stanford University joecorn@stanford.edu<mailto:joecorn@stanford.edu> Permanent Address: P.O. Box 1299 Sagamore Beach, MA 02562
Paul, Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article: The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006 http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene... He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.” I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery. Paul McJones
On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> wrote:
... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ...
All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor.
I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004). On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org> wrote:
Paul,
Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article:
The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006
http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene...
He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.”
I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery.
Paul McJones
On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> wrote:
... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ...
All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382
Don't forget Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set (1957)! ________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of James Cortada [jcortada@umn.edu] Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 4:03 PM To: Paul McJones Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004). On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org<mailto:paul@mcjones.org>> wrote: Paul, Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article: The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006 http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene... He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.” I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery. Paul McJones On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu<mailto:CeruzziP@si.edu>> wrote: ... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ... All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor. _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382
Another cultural suggestion to pair with the *Desk Set* is the May 1964 episode of *The Twilight Zone*, "The Brain Center at Whipple's." One of those Rod Serlingesque accounts of an efficiency expert who completely automates a factory, laying off all the assembly line workers, until his job too is replaced with a robot. Not the most profound account, but reflective of period anxieties. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Andrew Meade McGee Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall Charlottesville, VA 22904 On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 5:53 PM, McMillan, William W < william.mcmillan@cuaa.edu> wrote:
Don't forget Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set (1957)!
________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of James Cortada [jcortada@umn.edu] Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 4:03 PM To: Paul McJones Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography
I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004).
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org<mailto: paul@mcjones.org>> wrote: Paul,
Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article:
The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006
http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene...
He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.”
I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery.
Paul McJones
On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu<mailto: CeruzziP@si.edu>> wrote:
... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ...
All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Another take on replacement - not for economic reasons, but in obsessive obeisance to other values - is the classic, "With Folded Hands". On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 10:15 PM, Andrew Meade McGee <amm5ae@virginia.edu> wrote:
Another cultural suggestion to pair with the *Desk Set* is the May 1964 episode of *The Twilight Zone*, "The Brain Center at Whipple's." One of those Rod Serlingesque accounts of an efficiency expert who completely automates a factory, laying off all the assembly line workers, until his job too is replaced with a robot. Not the most profound account, but reflective of period anxieties.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Andrew Meade McGee Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall Charlottesville, VA 22904
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 5:53 PM, McMillan, William W < william.mcmillan@cuaa.edu> wrote:
Don't forget Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set (1957)!
________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of James Cortada [jcortada@umn.edu] Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 4:03 PM To: Paul McJones Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography
I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004).
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org<mailto: paul@mcjones.org>> wrote: Paul,
Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article:
The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006
http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene...
He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.”
I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery.
Paul McJones
On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu<mailto: CeruzziP@si.edu>> wrote:
... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ...
All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu> Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org> Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org> University of Washington There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
You may also want to look at Booth, A. E. (2007). The Management of Technical Change: Automation in the U.K. and U.S.A. since 1950. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Best Bernardo Bangor University (Wales) On 15 Jun 2015, at 23:19, Ian S. King <isking@uw.edu> wrote:
Another take on replacement - not for economic reasons, but in obsessive obeisance to other values - is the classic, "With Folded Hands".
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 10:15 PM, Andrew Meade McGee <amm5ae@virginia.edu> wrote: Another cultural suggestion to pair with the Desk Set is the May 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone, "The Brain Center at Whipple's." One of those Rod Serlingesque accounts of an efficiency expert who completely automates a factory, laying off all the assembly line workers, until his job too is replaced with a robot. Not the most profound account, but reflective of period anxieties.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Andrew Meade McGee Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall Charlottesville, VA 22904
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 5:53 PM, McMillan, William W <william.mcmillan@cuaa.edu> wrote: Don't forget Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set (1957)!
________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of James Cortada [jcortada@umn.edu] Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 4:03 PM To: Paul McJones Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography
I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004).
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org<mailto:paul@mcjones.org>> wrote: Paul,
Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article:
The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006 http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene...
He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.”
I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery.
Paul McJones
On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu<mailto:CeruzziP@si.edu>> wrote:
... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ...
All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School
Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal Value Sensitive Design Research Lab
University of Washington
There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China." _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
i was recently in one of the largest used bookstores in the US, in which there was an entire row dedicated to "computers." one entire shelf of that row, speaking roughly, was books with "automation" in the title. most from the 1980s, 1970s and before. it gave me some pause about the ability of we writers & humanists to impact the world of technological change, as much of what I leafed through (including many works I knew, some I'd read, and many more I didn't/haven't) could roughly be said to predict and caution against exactly what is happening today, particularly with regard to labor. On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 11:47 AM, Bernardo Batiz-Lazo <bbatiz64@gmail.com> wrote:
You may also want to look at
Booth, A. E. (2007). *The Management of Technical Change: Automation in the U.K. and U.S.A. since 1950*. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Best Bernardo Bangor University (Wales)
On 15 Jun 2015, at 23:19, Ian S. King <isking@uw.edu> wrote:
Another take on replacement - not for economic reasons, but in obsessive obeisance to other values - is the classic, "With Folded Hands".
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 10:15 PM, Andrew Meade McGee <amm5ae@virginia.edu> wrote:
Another cultural suggestion to pair with the *Desk Set* is the May 1964 episode of *The Twilight Zone*, "The Brain Center at Whipple's." One of those Rod Serlingesque accounts of an efficiency expert who completely automates a factory, laying off all the assembly line workers, until his job too is replaced with a robot. Not the most profound account, but reflective of period anxieties.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Andrew Meade McGee Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall Charlottesville, VA 22904
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 5:53 PM, McMillan, William W < william.mcmillan@cuaa.edu> wrote:
Don't forget Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set (1957)!
________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of James Cortada [jcortada@umn.edu] Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 4:03 PM To: Paul McJones Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography
I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004).
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org<mailto: paul@mcjones.org>> wrote: Paul,
Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article:
The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006
http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene...
He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.”
I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery.
Paul McJones
On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu<mailto: CeruzziP@si.edu>> wrote:
... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ...
All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu/>
Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org/> Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org/>
University of Washington
There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China." _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- David Golumbia dgolumbia@gmail.com
SIGCIS members, The discussion of automation, (as it relates to displacement of human labor in favor of machines) and the over-arching concerns that result seem to parallel the impetus behind the Luddite movement of the nineteenth century. Does anyone think this notion meritorious? Does anyone think there are similarities? A question arises as to the extent and trajectory of technology as it relates to vocation. Can technology become too unrestrained when it causes jobs to evaporate, or will obsoleteness always bring a wave of new positions associated with the latest technology? -Daniel Ferrell Home Acceptance Corporation (NMLS #1151715). 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736 From: dgolumbia@gmail.com Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 13:18:43 -0400 To: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography i was recently in one of the largest used bookstores in the US, in which there was an entire row dedicated to "computers." one entire shelf of that row, speaking roughly, was books with "automation" in the title. most from the 1980s, 1970s and before. it gave me some pause about the ability of we writers & humanists to impact the world of technological change, as much of what I leafed through (including many works I knew, some I'd read, and many more I didn't/haven't) could roughly be said to predict and caution against exactly what is happening today, particularly with regard to labor. On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 11:47 AM, Bernardo Batiz-Lazo <bbatiz64@gmail.com> wrote: You may also want to look at Booth, A. E. (2007). The Management of Technical Change: Automation in the U.K. and U.S.A. since 1950. Basingstoke: Palgrave. BestBernardoBangor University (Wales) On 15 Jun 2015, at 23:19, Ian S. King <isking@uw.edu> wrote: Another take on replacement - not for economic reasons, but in obsessive obeisance to other values - is the classic, "With Folded Hands". On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 10:15 PM, Andrew Meade McGee <amm5ae@virginia.edu> wrote: Another cultural suggestion to pair with the Desk Set is the May 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone, "The Brain Center at Whipple's." One of those Rod Serlingesque accounts of an efficiency expert who completely automates a factory, laying off all the assembly line workers, until his job too is replaced with a robot. Not the most profound account, but reflective of period anxieties. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Andrew Meade McGee Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall Charlottesville, VA 22904 On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 5:53 PM, McMillan, William W <william.mcmillan@cuaa.edu> wrote: Don't forget Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set (1957)! ________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of James Cortada [jcortada@umn.edu] Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 4:03 PM To: Paul McJones Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004). On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org<mailto:paul@mcjones.org>> wrote: Paul, Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article: The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006 http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene... He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.” I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery. Paul McJones On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu<mailto:CeruzziP@si.edu>> wrote: ... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ... All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor. _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org -- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal Value Sensitive Design Research Lab University of Washington There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China." _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org -- David Golumbia dgolumbia@gmail.com _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
A few elements of answers. There are several reflections comparing the social concerns about automation with the Luddite movement of the nineteenth century. AFAIK it is mostly militant-scholarly literature, for example : Cedric Biagini, Guillaume Carnino, Les Luddites en France. Resistance al’industrialisation et a l’informatisation, Montreuil, Editions L’Echappee, collection « Frankenstein », 2010, 336 pages. http://dissidences.hypotheses.org/2558 http://www.liberation.fr/grand-angle/2007/06/21/rage-against-the-machines_96... (the latter paper also mentions David Noble) One of the co-authors, Celia Izoard, was recently prosecuted after demolishing biometric equipment ; she translated Kirkpatrick Sale's Rebels Against the Future as La Revolte Luddite. I wrote a few pages in my doctoral dissertation about the 1957 hearings and reports of the French Conseil Economique et Social on "the social consequences of automation". It obviously aimed at adressing the concerns about job destruction by automatic machinery and computers. It essentially (and unsurprisingly) concluded that automation would induce change, rather than loss, of jobs ; and require considerable educational efforts. Anecdotically Renault, the car manufacturer, acquired in the late 1950s an IBM 705, soon nicknamed Anatole. In 1960, after the failure of Renault's commercial venture in the USA, the management decided to fire 3030 workers. The story goes that the computer was programmed to chose worker profiles to prepare the layoff decision “On October 10, the to-be fired workers at Billancourt gathered and set off to "break the face" of the inaccessible Anatole ("casser la gueule à Anatole"). A riot started. High pressure was organized by the communist union CGT – with no great result.” (Richter Daniel et alii, Renault, 100 ans d'histoire sociale, Boulogne-Billancourt, Comité de Groupe Européen Renault, 1999). Best, Pierre Mounier-Kuhn Le 22 juin 2015 à 20:24, Daniel Ferrell a écrit :
SIGCIS members,
The discussion of automation, (as it relates to displacement of human labor in favor of machines) and the over-arching concerns that result seem to parallel the impetus behind the Luddite movement of the nineteenth century. Does anyone think this notion meritorious? Does anyone think there are similarities? A question arises as to the extent and trajectory of technology as it relates to vocation. Can technology become too unrestrained when it causes jobs to evaporate, or will obsoleteness always bring a wave of new positions associated with the latest technology?
-Daniel Ferrell
Home Acceptance Corporation (NMLS #1151715). 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736
From: dgolumbia@gmail.com Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 13:18:43 -0400 To: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography
i was recently in one of the largest used bookstores in the US, in which there was an entire row dedicated to "computers." one entire shelf of that row, speaking roughly, was books with "automation" in the title. most from the 1980s, 1970s and before. it gave me some pause about the ability of we writers & humanists to impact the world of technological change, as much of what I leafed through (including many works I knew, some I'd read, and many more I didn't/haven't) could roughly be said to predict and caution against exactly what is happening today, particularly with regard to labor.
On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 11:47 AM, Bernardo Batiz-Lazo <bbatiz64@gmail.com> wrote: You may also want to look at
Booth, A. E. (2007). The Management of Technical Change: Automation in the U.K. and U.S.A. since 1950. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Best Bernardo Bangor University (Wales)
On 15 Jun 2015, at 23:19, Ian S. King <isking@uw.edu> wrote:
Another take on replacement - not for economic reasons, but in obsessive obeisance to other values - is the classic, "With Folded Hands".
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 10:15 PM, Andrew Meade McGee <amm5ae@virginia.edu>wrote: Another cultural suggestion to pair with the Desk Set is the May 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone, "The Brain Center at Whipple's." One of those Rod Serlingesque accounts of an efficiency expert who completely automates a factory, laying off all the assembly line workers, until his job too is replaced with a robot. Not the most profound account, but reflective of period anxieties.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Andrew Meade McGee Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall Charlottesville, VA 22904
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 5:53 PM, McMillan, William W<william.mcmillan@cuaa.edu> wrote: Don't forget Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set (1957)!
________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of James Cortada [jcortada@umn.edu] Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 4:03 PM To: Paul McJones Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Automation bibliography
I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004).
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org<mailto:paul@mcjones.org>> wrote: Paul,
Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article:
The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric By: Burton Grad, December 2006 http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_Gene...
He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.”
I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery.
Paul McJones
On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu<mailto:CeruzziP@si.edu>> wrote:
... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ...
All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members atsigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are athttp://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options athttp://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are athttp://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options athttp://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are athttp://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School
Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal Value Sensitive Design Research Lab
University of Washington
There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China." _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options athttp://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- David Golumbia dgolumbia@gmail.com
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are athttp://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options athttp://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Luke et al., On other factor to consider when addressing the issue of high skilled workers moving down the occupational ladder is the total number of college graduates entering the workforce and how that changed over time. It may be important, for a particular era of automation and a given industry, to address not only who is filling the jobs but whether the total number of high-skill jobs in that industry is changing and how that compares to the number of qualified applicants entering the workforce. -Julie ***************************** Julie Cohn, Ph.D. Research Historian Center for Public History University of Houston 315 McElhinney Hall Houston, TX 77204-3007 cohnconnor@comcast.net On Jun 13, 2015, at 6:18 PM, Luke Fernandez wrote:
Bjorn (and others),
Thanks for those cites. In your recollection which of these texts (or others if they come to mind) best detail what sectors of the labor force find their jobs more interesting as a result of the so-called computer revolution and what sectors find them less interesting?
To this concern, in The Glass Cage Nicholas Carr suggests that some jobs, like being an airline pilot or a health worker, have been cognitively degraded by the introduction of automation. And he worries that this is just a harbinger of more degradation to come. Barbara Garson, in The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers Are Transforming The Office of the Future Into the Factory of the Past made similar observations in 1988, and Matthew Crawford in Shop Craft as Soul Craft (2009) argues (in passages that footnote Braverman and Garson) that the degradation that blue collar workers experienced with the advent of the assembly line and automation are now also being experienced by white collar workers. In a similar vein, Ben Sand, Paul Beaudry and David Green argue in _The great reversal in the demand for skill and cognitive tasks_ that the cognitive challenges that college graduates face in their jobs have been declining significantly since the year 2000:
“high-skilled workers have moved down the occupational ladder and have begun to perform jobs traditionally performed by lower-skilled workers. This de-skilling process, in turn, results in high-skilled workers pushing lowskilled workers even further down the occupational ladder and, to some degree, out of the labor force all together.” [ http://www.economics.ubc.ca/files/2013/05/pdf_paper_paul-beaudry-great-rever...]
On the other hand I would guess that most of the people who subscribe to this listserv feel that their jobs are becoming more cognitively demanding rather than less. So what's going on? Does automation mean that (as Matthew Crawford argues) "genuine knowledge work comes to be concentrated in an ever smaller elite" while the rest of white collar workers become subject to a "rising sea of clerkdom?" Or is the story more complicated than the one Crawford and Carr recount? What texts should I read to better answer the question in my first paragraph?
Sincerely,
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 4:30 PM, Bjorn Westergard <bjornw@gmail.com> wrote: A few tangents you might explore:
It's hard to overstate the influence of Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics (and popular writing like The Human use of Human Beings) on subsequent management theorists.
SHOT's very own David Allen Grier has written quite a lot on the labor processes used in scientific computing before and during the introduction of automatic computing machinery. These are not directly related to "automation" per se (which term was coined circa 1940) but I found them very helpful in providing historical context and illustrating the basic continuity of some tendencies in the technical division of labor from the pre- to post- automatic computing eras.
Finally, SHOT's own Nathan Ensmenger recently published The Computer Boys Take Over, an invaluable history of some of the changes in occupational structure engendered by "computerization". It's particularly good on gender.
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Bjorn Westergard <bjornw@gmail.com> wrote: Here are some sources I've found helpful, albeit for a very particular set of questions around automation.
Marxian Historians, Social Scientists: Nobel - Forces of Production (a one-time SHOT member) Braverman - Labor and Monopoly Capital Pollock - Automation: A Study of Its Social and Economic Consequences
Influential Popular Writers: Rifkin - The End of Work Andre Gorz - Farewell to the Working Class
Economists: Leontief, Autor, Brynjolfsson, McAfee Levy - The New Division of Labor Vivarelli - Innovation and Employment: A Survey
Management Theorists: Herbert Simon - The Corporation: Will It be Managed by Machines? (published 1960) Drucker - The Practice of Management
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 1:29 PM, Daniel Ferrell <returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com> wrote: SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic?
-Daniel Ferrell
Home Acceptance Corporation (NMLS #1151715). 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
All, I've been watching this thread with interest. Then, just a few moments ago, while doing some research on the history of technology assessment, I came across this interesting text from 1987, _The Electronic Supervisor: New Technology, New Tensions <https://books.google.com/books?id=lYYKObt0TDkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false>_, put out by the OTA. Automation + Taylorism + a dash of Foucault. Later, Lee On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 6:04 PM, Julie Cohn <cohnconnor@comcast.net> wrote:
Luke et al.,
On other factor to consider when addressing the issue of high skilled workers moving down the occupational ladder is the total number of college graduates entering the workforce and how that changed over time. It may be important, for a particular era of automation and a given industry, to address not only who is filling the jobs but whether the total number of high-skill jobs in that industry is changing and how that compares to the number of qualified applicants entering the workforce.
-Julie
***************************** Julie Cohn, Ph.D. Research Historian Center for Public History University of Houston 315 McElhinney Hall Houston, TX 77204-3007 cohnconnor@comcast.net
On Jun 13, 2015, at 6:18 PM, Luke Fernandez wrote:
Bjorn (and others),
Thanks for those cites. In your recollection which of these texts (or others if they come to mind) best detail what sectors of the labor force find their jobs more interesting as a result of the so-called computer revolution and what sectors find them less interesting?
To this concern, in The Glass Cage Nicholas Carr suggests that some jobs, like being an airline pilot or a health worker, have been cognitively degraded by the introduction of automation. And he worries that this is just a harbinger of more degradation to come. Barbara Garson, in The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers Are Transforming The Office of the Future Into the Factory of the Past made similar observations in 1988, and Matthew Crawford in Shop Craft as Soul Craft (2009) argues (in passages that footnote Braverman and Garson) that the degradation that blue collar workers experienced with the advent of the assembly line and automation are now also being experienced by white collar workers. In a similar vein, Ben Sand, Paul Beaudry and David Green argue in _The great reversal in the demand for skill and cognitive tasks_ that the cognitive challenges that college graduates face in their jobs have been declining significantly since the year 2000:
“high-skilled workers have moved down the occupational ladder and have begun to perform jobs traditionally performed by lower-skilled workers. This de-skilling process, in turn, results in high-skilled workers pushing lowskilled workers even further down the occupational ladder and, to some degree, out of the labor force all together.” [ http://www.economics.ubc.ca/files/2013/05/pdf_paper_paul-beaudry-great-rever... ]
On the other hand I would guess that most of the people who subscribe to this listserv feel that their jobs are becoming more cognitively demanding rather than less. So what's going on? Does automation mean that (as Matthew Crawford argues) "genuine knowledge work comes to be concentrated in an ever smaller elite" while the rest of white collar workers become subject to a "rising sea of clerkdom?" Or is the story more complicated than the one Crawford and Carr recount? What texts should I read to better answer the question in my first paragraph?
Sincerely,
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 4:30 PM, Bjorn Westergard <bjornw@gmail.com> wrote:
A few tangents you might explore:
It's hard to overstate the influence of Norbert Wiener's *Cybernetics *(and popular writing like T*he Human use of Human Beings*) on subsequent management theorists.
SHOT's very own David Allen Grier has written quite a lot on the labor processes used in scientific computing before and during the introduction of automatic computing machinery. These are not directly related to "automation" per se (which term was coined circa 1940) but I found them very helpful in providing historical context and illustrating the basic continuity of some tendencies in the technical division of labor from the pre- to post- automatic computing eras.
Finally, SHOT's own Nathan Ensmenger recently published *The Computer Boys Take Over, *an invaluable history of some of the changes in occupational structure engendered by "computerization". It's particularly good on gender.
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Bjorn Westergard <bjornw@gmail.com> wrote:
Here are some sources I've found helpful, albeit for a very particular set of questions around automation.
Marxian Historians, Social Scientists: Nobel - Forces of Production (a one-time SHOT member) Braverman - Labor and Monopoly Capital Pollock - Automation: A Study of Its Social and Economic Consequences
Influential Popular Writers: Rifkin - The End of Work Andre Gorz - Farewell to the Working Class
Economists: Leontief, Autor, Brynjolfsson, McAfee Levy - The New Division of Labor Vivarelli - Innovation and Employment: A Survey
Management Theorists: Herbert Simon - The Corporation: Will It be Managed by Machines? (published 1960) Drucker - The Practice of Management
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 1:29 PM, Daniel Ferrell < returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com> wrote:
SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic?
*-Daniel Ferrell*
*Home Acceptance Corporation *(NMLS #1151715)*. * 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- Assistant Professor Program on Science and Technology Studies College of Arts and Letters Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ 07030 leevinsel.com Twitter: @STS_News
great thread & thanks for all the pointers. however, as a european the most interesting thing in regard to automation that made a difference for what i can read here and overseas in the archives and online is the paper from the ad hoc committee "triple revolution", 1964: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isr/vol25/no03/adhoc.html all the best, mariann On 12 Jun 2015, at 19:29, Daniel Ferrell <returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com> wrote:
SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic?
-Daniel Ferrell
Home Acceptance Corporation (NMLS #1151715). 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
participants (16)
-
Andrew Meade McGee -
Bernardo Batiz-Lazo -
Bjorn Westergard -
Ceruzzi, Paul -
Daniel Ferrell -
David Golumbia -
Ian S. King -
James Cortada -
Joe Corn -
Julie Cohn -
Lee Vinsel -
Luke Fernandez -
mariann unterluggauer -
McMillan, William W -
Paul McJones -
Pierre Mounier