Architect or Bee?: The Human / Technology Relationship

160 Pages·1980·4.936 MB·English

by  Mike Cooley, Shirley Cooley

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Architect Or Bee?

Architect Or Bee?
THE HUMAN/TECHNOLOGY RELATIONSHIP
by Mike Cooley
Introduction by David Noble
Compiled and edited by
Shirley Cooley
SOUTH END PRESS BOSTON, MA
© 1980 by Hand and Brain Publications.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
any form or by any means, without the prior permission of
Hand and Brain Publications, 95, Sussex Place, Slough, SL1
INN, England.
First published in the U.S.A. in 1982 by South End Press.
ISBN 0-89608-131-1
Cover design by Lydia Sargent
Second Printing
Typeset, paste up and design by the collective at
South End Press
302 Columbus Ave
Boston, MA 02116
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editor’s Preface vii
Introduction by David Noble xi
1. Identifying the Problem 1
2. The Human Machine Interaction 25
3. Political Implications
of New Technology 51
4. Drawing Up the Corporate
Plan at Lucas Aerospace 81
5. Some Social and
Technological Projections 107

Editor’s Preface
It is only recently that the social problems arising from
technological change have become the subject of widespread
public concern. The predictions that Mike made in his lectures
in 1960-70 and thereafter, and in his 1972 book Computer
Aided Design—Its Nature and Implications are now becoming
a reality, and the trade union movement is beginning to recog¬
nize that the nature of the new technology is an important and
fundamental issue requiring urgent action. The question some
are now asking is whether the horse has already bolted and the
technology advanced so far along the wrong path that it is too
late to divert it along a different one.
This however is not the author’s view, or that of the Lucas
Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards’ Committee which is cur¬
rently working with other combines, researchers in the field
and the Centre for Alternatives Industrial and Technological
Systems (CAITS) to produce corporate plans around socially
useful products and human centered technologies. The tech¬
nologies being evolved are those which will again link hand
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and brain in the productive process and which will enhance the
creativity of the producer.
The book is basically a collection of material extracted
from the very wide range of articles, papers, lectures and
addresses at trade union meetings which Mike has produced
over the last eight years. His work is based on over 20 years
experience as an industrial designer in factories where he has
felt the impact of new technology on his own job and that of his
fellow workers. His analysis has progressed from the use/abuse
model evident in his earlier work, to encompass the idea that a
society’s technology is an integral part of its politics, and that
present technological systems are used for purposes of political
control by the multinational companies. He uses the computer
as a sort of political aperture through which to view the prob¬
lems advanced technology as a whole is bringing with it. If a
society is to be a truly democratic one Mike says, it will have to
develop radically different technological systems.
The reader will note that there is an inevitable imbalance
in the style and presentation of the material which requires
perhaps some explanation. Some parts are closely argued and
fully referenced while others are sharp, somewhat rhetorical
and not referenced at all. The former material is taken from
lectures and papers presented to academic bodies and scientific
societies and were produced in the written form in the first
place. The sparsely referenced material comes from talks and
discussions that were later written up or published in maga¬
zines and journals. These include the explanations of the ideas
behind the Corporate Plan and the details of some of the
products which were the subject of countless meetings within
the trade union movement over several years.
In spite of the variation in style, the book stands as a whole
in the sense that it is a progression of ideas. It begins by giving
the reader an outline of the nature of technological develop¬
ment in industry. It then goes on to demonstrate the effects all
this is having on the individuals who are involved with it, those
who are displaced by it, and on the society as a whole. It
examines the implications of extracting skills from people and
programming the fragmented parts into machines and the
implications of nuclear power and control by the equipment