In the 1957 Spencer Tracy–Katharine Hepburn movie “Desk Set,” written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron and made with the coöperation of I.B.M., Tracy, an M.I.T. scientist who has invented an “electronic brain,” turns up with a tape measure in the research department on the twenty-eighth floor of the Federal Broadcasting Company building. Hepburn, the head of the department, invites him into her office.
“I’m a methods engineer,” Tracy says to Hepburn, introducing himself.
“Is that a sort of efficiency expert?”
“Well, that term is a bit obsolete now.”
“Oh, forgive me,” Hepburn says. “I’m so sorry. I’m the old-fashioned type.”
Tracy has a giant computer installed in Hepburn’s department. Hepburn expects that her entire staff will be fired. Before demonstrating how the machine works, Tracy makes a speech to a group of corporate executives.
“Gentlemen, the purpose of this machine of course is to free the worker—”
(“You can say that again,” Hepburn mutters.)
“—to free the worker from the routine and repetitive tasks and liberate his time for more important work.”
Hepburn: “I think you could safely say that it will provide more leisure for more people.”
“I’m a methods engineer,” Tracy says to Hepburn, introducing himself.
“Is that a sort of efficiency expert?”
“Well, that term is a bit obsolete now.”
“Oh, forgive me,” Hepburn says. “I’m so sorry. I’m the old-fashioned type.”
Tracy has a giant computer installed in Hepburn’s department. Hepburn expects that her entire staff will be fired. Before demonstrating how the machine works, Tracy makes a speech to a group of corporate executives.
“Gentlemen, the purpose of this machine of course is to free the worker—”
(“You can say that again,” Hepburn mutters.)
“—to free the worker from the routine and repetitive tasks and liberate his time for more important work.”
Hepburn: “I think you could safely say that it will provide more leisure for more people.”
Jill Lepore, Away From My Desk
10th Nov 2014 / 9 notes
The white-collar people slipped quietly into modern society. Whatever history they have had is a history without events; whatever common interests they have do not lead to unity; whatever future they have will not be of their own making.
C. Wright Mills, White Collar
10th Nov 2014 / 20 notes
Those three walls had once been meant to liberate office workers, to guarantee their autonomy and freedom. But they had finally taken on the image that they have today: the flimsy, fabric-wrapped, half-exposed stall where the white-collar worker waited out his days until, at long last, he was laid off.
Nikil Saval, Cubed
10th Nov 2014 / 15 notes
Three Laws of Robotics: 1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.