Blarne Flinkard wrote:

> If anyone knows the colleague to whom Chomsky refers to below I'd be
> appreciative if he let me know who it is. Thanks and enjoy.
>
> Transcribed from Noam Chomsky _Capital Rules_ track 12 "Automation:
> Protecting the Rich from Market Discipline" available online at:
> http://www.worldmedia.com/archive/index.html
>
> "Containerization, and computer controlled machine tools and that kind of
> stuff were developed in the state sector and they were developed in very
> specific ways. There's nothing about automation that says that it should
> be a weapon in the hands of management. [It] could be exactly the
> opposite. The technology is quite neutral--it doesn't really care how it's
> used. You can develop automation so that it's a weapon to drive people out
> of work and to increase managerial prerogatives or you can develop
> automation to put more power into the hands of skilled machinists and get
> rid of management. The automation is completely neutral.
>
> "There's good studies of this actually by a guy who is a colleague of mine
> at MIT who didn't get tenure in part because of these studies. But they're
> very solid work which points out that the automation was in fact designed
> specifically to deskill workers and to add levels of management. [It's]
> very antieconomic-efficiency but very useful for class struggle and hence,
> yes, there are these weapons now--automation--which are driving people out
> of work. But that's because they were designed that way--not in any sense
> inherent in the technology.
>
> "Automation, robotics, and all of that stuff could all be fine things to
> just get rid of dirty work and get rid of management (which you don't need
> anyway) and get rid of owners and just put control in the hands of the
> workforce. You can do that. But, of course, it's not designed that way.
> And in particular when it works through the state sector, as it did, you
> can be sure it won't be defined that way."

Dear Blarne,

I am not sure whether this is the correct person but Chomsky has often
cited David F. Noble when discussing automation, state subsidy for high
technology industry, and the ownership, management and control of
industry. The books by Noble that Chomsky cites on page 186 of
"World Orders, Old and New" (Pluto, 1994) are "Progress Without
People: In Defense of Luddism" (Between  the Lines, 1995) and "Forces
of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation" (Oxford
University Press, 1986). I have read Noble's "America by Design:
Science, Technology and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism" (Oxford
University Press, 1979) and I found it quite brilliant. He is a great
historian and well worth checking out.

Good luck with your enquiries,

Mohammed Khan