It is often said that the advance of technology is at the
expense of people's individuality.  Certainly
most of the opportunities provided by technology for making
things with less labor have involved the division of labor
and replacing the labor of craftsmen with the unskilled labor
of machine operators doing small operations.  Thus technology
provides societies and individuals with the opportunities
to make certain tradeoffs, and societies and individuals have
often chosen cheapness over craftsmanship.  In my opinion, most
of these decisions have been correct from the point of view
of most of those directly affected.  This is shown by the
migration of people into areas where the changes have taken
place from areas with the more primitive economies.

	However, society is much richer now than it was
when the industrial revolution started, and it is time
to look at opportunities that may be provided by technology
for increasing the power and opportunities of individuals.
In this, we shall include individuality in work, in self-expression,
in culture, in recreation, and in all other areas of life.

	In the first place, many such opportunities have already
been taken.

	The most important of these opportunities was provided
by the automobile.  In my opinion, this is the correct way to
interpret the abandonment of public transportation by all who
could afford cars in spite of the greater physical efficiency
of public transportation.  People highly value being able to go
when they want to go, change their minds when halfway there,
and carry hundreds of pounds of assorted goods and children.
They also value the comfort of the car and its privacy.  (Some
social thinkers believe they should value the possible company
of mass transportation, but they don't).  This is not a complete
list of the reasons why people prefer cars to mass transportation
nor does it attempt to evaluate the strength of the reasons.
Anyone who proposes to change this preference should understand
them better and should include his analysis in the environmental
impact statement.