ABSTRACT
The debate about the implications and consequences of automation for industry, society, and the individual is now very familiar to us all. We may quarrel about the terminology used (automation or cybernation?) or about the need to trace automatic developments back to the industrial revolution or beyond, but the plethora of international conferences and publications in the last ten years have at least established automation and the use of computers as a problem or a set of problems of major importance. Underneath the debate there often seems to be a deep-rooted anxiety. Although scientific and technological advance offers us power and mastery over our environment – as Edmund Leach has recently said – ‘Men have become like gods, but instead of rejoicing we feel deeply afraid.’[ 1 ] ‘Cybernation creates changes in our social system so vast and so utterly different from those in the past that it will challenge to its roots our present understanding about the viability of our way of life.’[ 2 ]
