The limits of laissez-innover: Canada's automation controversy, 1955-1969

The introduction of numerical-control processing and increased computerizat ion in the mid-1950s-"automation"-was met with widespread fear that "thinki ng machines" were about to cause massive unemployment. While hardly the fir st time in history that people viewed machines as threats, this particular technological controversy was characterized by a ubiquitous belief in the r eality and necessity of unbridled progress. The underlying laissez-innover mentality meant that even those most likely to be critical of the effects o f technological change such as organized labour accepted its "inevitability ." the crux of the controversy was that while the word automation fell into disuse by the late 1960s, the central question is generated-namely how to maintain economic security in the face of rapid technological change-has re mained central to recent public policy debates on "economic restructuring" and "globalization." As such, the automation controversy has never really e nded, although the word itself no longer leads to media commentary.