Machines and Humans

Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to.
-- H. Mumford Jones

Building machines is something that no single person can do and requires teamwork. One may come up with the rough sketch, another may build the parts and someone else might do most of the assembling. Jones perhaps recognises this and so we have the use of the word "ours". No-one person can claim ownership, somewhere along the line they would have to share the glory with someone else. This is illustrated with the use of the word "proud".

Machines are built constantly to aid life whether it is in big industries or for domestic purposes in homes. The use of the phrase "is the age" suggests this as much in that every generation will try and out do the previous generation therefore we should be satisfied in our achievements that will improve our lives.

The quote is balanced however with the second part of the sentence. Somewhere on another blog I had read the quote which went along something like this "if it isn't a competition, why are we called the human race"..(if that didn't make sense I apologise but I hope the meaning is conveyed some how). Anyway, it is about how sometimes thinking is frowned upon simply because it disrupts an aspect that is comfortable and thus now challenged. For me I remember the novel 'Animal Farm' a satire on Communism and Russia, where society was advised and believed everything that was told to them. Anybody who did otherwise was punished.

Machines will follow orders, humans will challenge.