The talk begins with a critique of how machinery has been used within capitalism to benefit the few and produce miserable lives for the many. It then turns to a description of the life that could be created for all if machinery, largely automated, were used to benefit everyone. Most people work very short hours but have been educated to get the best out of their leisure time and “how to think critically and fearlessly, how to play an intelligent and responsible part in the great common enterprise of maintaining a truly human and civilized world-society” (173). Routine work is done by machinery but there is much handcrafted goods available.
BT - An Olaf Stapledon Reader C5 -PSt
C6 -(1886-1950)
C7 -1997
CY - Syracuse, NY DA - 01/1997 N2 -The talk begins with a critique of how machinery has been used within capitalism to benefit the few and produce miserable lives for the many. It then turns to a description of the life that could be created for all if machinery, largely automated, were used to benefit everyone. Most people work very short hours but have been educated to get the best out of their leisure time and “how to think critically and fearlessly, how to play an intelligent and responsible part in the great common enterprise of maintaining a truly human and civilized world-society” (173). Routine work is done by machinery but there is much handcrafted goods available.
PB - Syracuse University Press PP - Syracuse, NY PY - 1997 RN -First publication of a talk given on the BBC in 1934. Published from Stapledon’s handwritten copy in the BBC Archive.
SP - 169 EP - 174 T2 - An Olaf Stapledon Reader TI - “Machinery and Labour” ER -