The New Luddite Challenge

Summary:

     All work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of machines.  They will see to it that everyone’s physical needs are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic conditions, that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone who may become dissatisfied undergoes “treatment” to cure his “problem”.  The average man may have control over certain private machines of his own, such as his car or his personal computer, but control over large systems  of machines will be in the hands of a tiny elite.  The machines might be permitted to make all of their own decisions without human oversight, or else human control over the machines might be retained.  These engineered human beings may be happy in such a society, but they will  not be free.  They, humans, will have been reduced to the status of domestic animals.

Analysis

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