> During the industrial revolution, the goal of progress in technology (and machines to be more specific) was always to, one day, have no humans working to surv

> During the industrial revolution, the goal of progress in technology (and machines to be more specific) was always to, one day, have no humans working to survive, but living lives and do whatever they want. No, that's actually propaganda. The goal was always to show those pesky, skillful, artisans their true place in society. The means was to embed as much as possible of their tacit knowledge either in machines or in soft, human, procedures/standards/rules/policies. Then, the owner class would go back to control all the means of production and have the destinies of their faithful serfs on their hands. The fact that this process brought unprecedented prosperity was a happy side effect that nobody gave much thought at the time. Then the whole process was rationalized on those bases when the social sensitivities of the serfs became too self conscious.