Good point. One of my favorite thought experiments is to take the assumption
that technology makes it possible for most people to have what only the rich
could afford a few (years, product cycles, generations) ago. I was struck by
this when I visited FDR's home in Hyde Park New York and saw all the gadgets he
had to do what comes easily to us.
A corollary of this is to think about how the rich live (or lived). Was Mr
Darcy (hero of Pride and Prejudice) remorseful because he didn't have job
satisfaction ?
I am also leary of arguments about man's nature. They often turn out to be
justifications for policy. For example, until Hoover died, blacks just didn't
seem to be able to perform as FBI agents and everyone knows that women are
obviously too frail to vote..
Bring on the robots. Maybe they can do my taxes (say what about a tax program ?)
Marc Sobel
Thomas Lunde wrote:
> Thomas:
>
> After plowing through 80 E Mails, I don't have the energy to go back and
> look for comments, but on reading a book review on ROBOT by Hans Moravic
> posted on the Net from Wired, I was struck by this sentence:
>
> Quote:
>
> Moravec argues that the concept of work was unknown before agriculture and
> the industrial revolution and that we'll get rid of it permanently within a
> few decades, when smart machines free us not only from household chores, but
> also from exhausting tasks such as writing computer software or managing
> corporations. Contrary to popular fears, we'll celebrate our redundancy
> because, as hunter-gatherers, indolence and unemployment are part of our
> evolutionary heritage.
>
> Thomas:
>
> It was the last sentence that resonated within me. I have long felt that we
> deny ourselves one of our birthrights - indolence and unemployment. I enjoy
> immensely - doing little or nothing and I enjoy immensely - the pleasure of
> following my impulses. Work and employment destroy those natural human
> attributes and make them into leisure activities that can only be indulged
> in after worshipping at the alter of employment. Biologically, I think we
> are not workers, but livers of life. I for one, welcome a future of leisure
> and indolence.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Thomas Lunde
