Postman argues that the development of technical expertise occurred in steps. Such a sequence was so powerful that each stage overwhelmed our perception and each step undermined subsequent effective responses to new technology. The increments occurred so swiftly and pervasively that we no longer effectively control tools and their applications.
| Stages | Mechanical | Technocracy | Automated | |
| 1 | Prologue | Descartes' Method | Bacon's vision | Oliver Evan's Mill |
| 2 | Preliminary antecedents | Organ & Clock | Guns, magnet, press | Railroads |
| 3 | Immediate problem (anomaly) and discoveries | Longitude & navigation | Experimental evidence | lightning and machine sparks |
| 4 | Research and laboratory Development | James Watt Eli Whitney |
Priestly, Cavendish Smithsonian | Telegraph, time & motion–the Gilbreaths |
| 5 | prototype | Newcomen engine | Bell Labs | Morse code |
| 6 | testing | Watts explosion | Taylorism | Meat packing / canning |
| 7 | Deployment | Dual cylinder engines | Newspapers media | Ford's assembly - line |
| 8 | marketing & development | Steam transport | advertising | aircraft |
| 9 | dispersal | railways | radio | radar |
Oliver
Evan's completely automated flour mill 
1790s, Philadelphia, US. He
used a system of pulleys and Archimedean screws to move the grain from the wagon
unloaded on the right hand side. This obviated the need for any human hands
to touch the grain until it was turned into flour and bagged on the left. Once
packaged in a sack, the flour could be loaded on the awaiting ship, seen here
to the left of the mill. The spread of wheat and the consequent reduction in
flour prices encouraged the spread of the wheat planting belt from Pennsylvania
in the 1790s to the Prairies and Illinois in the 1830s.
Oliver Evans also constructed a prototype steam engine, steam carriage and perfected the vacuum for refrigeration before he opened the Mars iron works in Philadelphia. He died impoverished as his inventions were far ahead of their times.
From Technocracy to Technopoly
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| Tools of Toil: what to read. | ||
| Tools are historical building blocks of technology. | ||
