Cybernation: The Trauma that Awaits Us

It is hard to imagine that anything written these last few months could cast so harsh a light on the future of our society as Cybernation, a pamphlet written by Donald Michael and published by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California. This pamphlet not only brings together authoritative data concerning automation and related developments; it makes clear that changes of enormous scope are now occurring in our economy. When President Kennedy recently became indignant because electrical workers had won a 25-hour week, he was being not merely reactionary but also naive and irrelevant. For very soon the real question will be whether industrial workers will have any hours of work. Or if that be too extreme, the question is: How many millions of workers in how many industries will find themselves jobless because of the persistent advance of automated devices?

The term cybernation is used by Mr. Michael to refer to:
a) automation, “devices that automatically perform sensing and motor tasks, replacing or improving on human capacities for performing these functions” and
b) computers, “devices that perform, very rapidly, routine or complex logical and decision-ma...