Unsettled issue

[Donald J Donaker (Don)]

The word, "cybernation," was entered into Merriam-Wester dictionary in 1962. In 1962, Time and Life magazine had a feature article on cybernation. Following that year, it completly disappeared from "public discourse."

A black man pointed it out in 1968. Yo!, all you trash talkers; "cybernation," the prelude to robotic production.

In late March 1968, just 4 days before his assassination in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. In his speech, titled "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution," Dr. King said:

"…one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution.

"There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in the world today. In a sense it is a triple revolution: that is, a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation."

"sleeping through a revolution," before his perceptive mind was deliberately terminated, we remain, "sleeping through a revolution ," ever since.

[Matthew Andrews]

I just recently listened to this episode of Against the Grain (link below).  It's a great interview.  I'd pick up a copy of Carr's book. He doesn't get into the macro-economic implications as much as I'd like, but he does make some subtle points I hadn't thought much about before.  Here's the summary from the show's webpage:

We rely on automation in all aspects of our lives, from our jobs to our leisure activities. It’s meant to save us time and labor and free us for other pursuits. But does automation make our lives better? Writer Nicholas Carr reflects on the darker side of automation, from mechanized warfare to deskilling on the job. He argues for a relationship between technology and work that does not leave us alienated, left in low paid jobs, or open to surveillance.

Resources:

Nicholas Carr, The Glass Cage: How Our Computers are Changing Us W.W. Norton, 2015

https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-july-6-2016/

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[Donald J Donaker (Don)]

Matt

Thanks, very much appreciated.

Don

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[Donald J Donaker (Don)]

Matt

Perhaps you might be interested in the following if you have not already read it:

How Amazon Triggered a Robot Arms Race

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-29/how-amazon-triggered-a-robot-arms-race

Don

On Monday, July 11, 2016 at 12:16:13 PM UTC-5, Matthew Andrews wrote:

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[Donald J Donaker (Don)]

From the hammer, to mechanized tools, to automation, to cybernation and now robotic production, to the extent of some operations, where it is called lights out manufacturing, no workers present—robots don't need lights, they work in the dark. What! Is all that an embodiment of Marx's materialist conception of history?

Jobs and more jobs, they say.

Bloomberg, [thank God almighty, business report magazine]
 3 articles below:

July 1, 2010 feature article, "How America Can Create Jobs"

February 17, 2016 feature article, "Robots Are Coming, But
 Not For Your Job" (subtitle) "Industry association says
 machine labor will augment, not replace, human labor"

Last paragraph: "This doesn’t necessarily mean jobs for
 humans... will shrink. Rather, we may be just a step closer
 to a reality where people and computers [no doubt meaning
 robots?] work side-by-side."

Just 4 months later:

June 29,2016 feature article, "How Amazon Triggered a
 Robot Arms Race" It includes an animated cartoon depicting
 a maze of robots scurrying around performing tasks with
 with nary a human worker working "side-by-side."

How pertinent to the above is Martin Ford's, "Rise of the
 Robots"?

Consider that Amazon, which totally converted it operation
 to Kiva robots. The company bought Kiva Systems, founded in
 January, 2003, for $775 million in 2012. The above Bloomberg
 article: "....Jeff Bezos, its 52-year-old chief executive,
 command of an entire industry. He decided to use the robots
 for Amazon and Amazon alone, ending the sale of Kiva's
 products to warehouse operators and retailers that had come
 to rely on them. As contracts expired, they had to find other
 options to keep up with an ever-increasing consumer need for
 speed. The only problem was that there were no other options.
 Kiva was pretty much it."

Could it be said that the deal constituded a case of absolute
 monopoly? How many human workers would it take to be worth
 $775 million? As Karl Marx has said, and would say today,
 (paraphrase) capitalist competition pivots on displacement of
 human labor (labor power), not increasing it. As one capitalist
 recently said, (the exact quote is available) he desire was to
 be able to look over the entire production floor, in operation,
 and not see a single worker there.

What do we hear the illustrious politicians, running for office,
 spout from their "ivory towers," "Elect me and I will create
 jobs."

Amazon: "The only problem was that there were no other options.
 Kiva was pretty much it." ["no other options," how pretty, like
 a little kitty cat!]

Ending with the beginning, "Jobs and more jobs, they say."

Remember 1968, Martin Luther King:

"…one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution."