Work and Leisure: Domestic technology and more work for mother. Bivalent futures of information technology. The "curse" of the invention of agriculture. Work in the middle ages: 189 holidays! The increasing work week today. Mechanization as creator as well as destroyer of jobs. Interdependency of causes and effects.

READING: Volti, Section III: Technology and the Transformation of Work.

Chapter 8, "Work in Nonindustrial Societies"

Chapter 9, "Technology and Jobs: More of One and Less of the Other?"br>          This chapter deals with productivity changes, mechanization, automation, long and short term un/dis-employment, and gender differences in work.
-Has unemployment been common in history?
144. Is "the desire to acquire more and more.. present in most human beings?"
145. Most of the jobs today didn't exist 100 years ago -- is that good?
-Describe the indirect effects of technologies on employment.
147. What particular difficulties do Rossums Universal Robots face in taking over work?
148ff. What has been the single most striking change in the proportions of the labor force employed in different sectors?
- Are there limits to the indefinite expansion of service jobs?
150/151. What seem to be critically important aspects of "softening the blow" of technological unemployment?
152. Overall, what questions remain unresolved?
-Are we "better off" at the expense of the rest of the world? If so, is that ethical?

Chapter 10, "Technological Change and LIfe on the Job"
156. Describe the major changes in work brought about by industrialization.
160. Did viable alternatives to industrialization exist?
161. What was the climax of industrial technology and the principle of division of labor? How did workers feel about it?
164. What was scientific management, and does it "seem repellent to us today"?
165. What are some of the major features of recent technologcal change and work characteristics, as they affect the worker, both blue and white collar, and by gender?
--Whose interests are served by a particular organization of work?
--How can management get workers to co-operate in their exploitation?
If the workers cooperate, is there any exploitation? By what criteria?

R.S. Cowan, "Less Work for Mother" Teich, 6th edition, 329-339
--Domestic technology transformed the American household between 1920 and 1960 [list the artifacts]. How did it affect the average number of hours of housework?
--Studies of the vacuum cleaner, washer, and automobile reveal what pattern of effect upon household work?
--There are many more married women in the labor force now than formerly; to what not so often recognized [subtle?] factor does Cowan attribute part of the reason for that change?

Shoshana Zuboff, "In the Age of the Smart Machine," Teich, 6th ed.,340-49
--Zuboff depicts a number of possible scenarios of future workplaces - of organization and mangement - of increasing use of intelligent [information] [computer] technology. She talks about knowledge technology and information technology.
         She claims these technologies have a dual nature.
1. automation [since 1950s, similar but different from mechanization-          takes control of work from worker]
2. informat [-ics, -ion] : the possibility of creating lots more knowledge and data/information connections with the system the technology is a part of [note: shares "system" characteristic of technology with Volti], e.g. UPC scanners, as information increasing [not to mention privacy invading].
-What two distinct futures does Zuboff paint? Which would you prefer?
-Does what you prefer call for a revolution?
-What's the difference between data and information?
-What's the plural of anecdote?