Beard charles a intro (2 Ergebnisse)

Hardcover. Zustand: Good. No Jacket. Lg. 8vo. Dk green cl., black lettering to backstr., sl. faded, backstr. faded, edges sl. faded. Xxiii, 669pp. incl. appendix index.

Hardcover. Zustand: Near Fine. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Near Fine. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION. A forward-looking examination of the social and economic consequences of the machine age, and a striking early attempt to imagine what happens when technological progress begins to make human labour increasingly redundant. Laing argues that mechanisation is not simply transforming industry but undermining the foundations of the existing economic system, forcing a reconsideration of value, currency, purchasing power and the place of man himself. Particularly notable is his discussion of energy as a possible unit of currency. Aligned with the contemporary technocracy movement, Laing proposes that commodities might instead be valued according to the total amount of energy consumed in their production, an idea he develops through his theory of "Energy Determinants". He also considers the consequences of the declining purchasing power of workers as mechanisation reduces the need for human labour. Written at the beginning of the machine age, Towards Technocracy is striking today for its anticipation of questions that have re-emerged with automation and artificial intelligence. Scarce in the original dust jacket, attractively illustrated with fourteen pages of industrial photographs. BOOK: Publisher's quarter black cloth with yellow paper covered boards, front cover lettered in orange; interior clean. DUST JACKET: Price-clipped jacket with light wear to edges, very minor loss to head of spine, scratch to bottom of rear panel.…