1960s Auto Worker Hated His Job & Felt Like A Robot. Doesn’t See Automation Coming

Herbert Slater worked on automobile assembly line in 1964. He was an industrial worker who had not graduated high school. He felt like a robot and he describes it very well in this film clip. He felt they complete lack of connection to the work and was trying to figure out a way to improve his life. He was not thinking about the coming of automation, AI, and the rapid change from the industrial age to the information age. The work he was doing, so repetitive, took the life out of him and he did not know what to do. Also presented in this film clip is Edwin Land, the founder and CEO of Polaroid who was aware of these kinds of repetitive mind-numbing jobs and could see the coming of automation as having value for some and creating less available work for others. He and the management at Polaroid were trying to figure out what to do about this.. At the time, I was a young documentary filmmaker/cameraman and felt so good about my work. I couldn’t see myself working on one of those production lines ev