It has long been clear to me that the modern ultra-rapid computing machine was in principle an
ideal central nervous system to an apparatus for automatic control; and that its input and output
need not be in the form of numbers or diagrams but might very well be, respectively, the
readings of artificial sense organs, such as photoelectric cells or thermometers, and the
performance of motors or solenoids. . . . Long before Nagasaki and the public awareness of the
atomic bomb, it had occurred to me that we were here in the presence of another social
potentiality of unheard-of importance for good and for evil. (Wiener, 1948, p.36)
Perhaps I may clarify the historical background of the present situation if I say that the first
industrial revolution, the revolution of the “dark satanic mills,” was the devaluation of the
human arm by the competition of machinery. . . . The modern industrial revolution [i.e., the
computer revolution] is similarly bound to devalue the human brain. . . . The answer, of course,
is to have a society based on human values other than buying and selling. To arrive at this
society, we need a good deal of planning and a good deal of struggle. . . . (Wiener, 1948, pp.
37-38, bracketed words added)