Editorial September 10, 1966 Issue

Man and Machines

William Milford Correll

With all the intricate mechanisms that are being developed, one might begin to wonder if the machines are about to take over and if men are becoming the slaves of their own creations. It is helpful to review some fundamental facts that aid us in maintaining proper perspective. One of these great facts set forth in Christian Science is that there is no life or intelligence in matter.

Whatever is created is subject to the mentality that creates it. It is a projection of thought. This is true in the highest metaphysical sense when we consider man as the creation of God, and it is true in all the lower imitative acts in the realm of material development. Mind is the actor. Mrs. Eddy says: "If Mind is the only actor, how can mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuates its own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it, and then calls it material. A mill at work or the action of a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continuation of, the primitive mortal mind."^{Science and Health, p. 399;}

The development of automatic computing machines has given rise to the beliefs that the machine can think and that it can make decisions of itself. However intricate the logical processes involved, however large the memory, however great the amount of information, the machine can do only what it is told to do. It is a derivative of thought at work, and it still is and always will be in the position of being a derivative. We must never accept any speculative belief that the machine can turn the tables and determine what men can do.

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