Gigaom AI Minute – July 22

Transcript

The story of John Henry is a nineteenth century folk tale, frequently set to music. John Henry was a "steel-driving man" whose job was to hammer steel spikes into rock. John Henry was the best of them all, but one day, a steam drill was invented to do that same job. John Henry wasn't about to be replaced by a machine, so he told his captain, "Well, a man's gotta act like a man, and before the steam drill beats me, I will die, hammer in my hand." So, he challenged the steam drill to see which of them was better. It was a close contest, but John Henry prevailed. However, the work was so intense that John Henry collapsed and died on the spot immediately after the contest, hammer in his hand. Everyone said that "John Henry died like a man."

I learned the story of John Henry when I was 10, and even then I thought the whole story was crazy. Why didn't John Henry just get a job running the steam drill? He seems like he'd be a great candidate for the job, and it's bound to have paid better and been a whole bunch easier. And the idea that John Henry's death was somehow noble struck me, even as a child, as ridiculous. He threw his life away trying to try to prove an unprovable point, that human muscle power would always exceed machine power. And finally, John Henry must have used tools, such as the hammer he died holding. He didn't insist on hammering spikes with his fist, so why would be object to the steam-powered hammer?

Can you imagine a warehouse that stores bricks getting a forklift and someone who used to carry bricks on their back refusing to use it, challenging the forklift to a contest? Or a mathematician who would rather die with a slide rule in his hand than use the infernal calculator? Of course not. But the story of John Henry is the story of our mixed feelings about labor saving technology, one we are still experiencing today.