From: OPE-L Administrator (ope-admin@ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu)
Date: Sun Jan 26 2003 - 11:40:17 EST
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Davis" <jdav@gocatgo.com> Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 10:59 AM Subject: Re: Electronics and Value (for OPE-L list) [Please consider posting this to the OPE-L list, in response to 8340. I screwed up and left some of another message the first time I sent this, and that other message got posted twice. Sorry, jd] In response to clyder@gn.apc.org [8340]: > The crucial factor was not the steam engine, since water power was > what drove the early textile factories, it was the invention of > automatic, or in English self-acting, machinery of which the Mule was > the most important example. The key factor here is that the sequencing > of actions moves from the nervous system of the worker to the machine > itself. And one other thing on this -- the mule can only be considered an extension of the nervous system in the most basic sense; it's basically replicating the manual dexterity of the worker in the course of doing rote repetitive tasks. The real extension of the nervous system wasn;t possible until the application of electricity to production; and even that could be considered rudimentary next to microprocessors, electronic sensors, digitalization and networks where the role of the worker as overseer, monitor, decision-maker etc. could be replaced. jd
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Jan 27 2003 - 00:00:01 EST