Doug, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > The more powerful technology becomes, the less we can tolerate its misuse > by a few. The possibility of its misuse by a few can never be excluded, > especially in a complex society with an atomised society, and much > "alienation" and "anomie." In such a society, powerful technology requires > large and pervasive security forces as we have seen, but the subordination > of those forces to the interests of the society is doubtful. >
While there are circumstances which allow for the use of force to control technology, what's clear is that over time knowledge leaks. You can find out as much on the internet today about how to build an atomic bomb as likely was passed by Julius Rosenberg to the Russians in the 50's, resulting in his conviction for treason and subsequent execution. I just don't see therefore that large and pervasive security forces would have any impact on the issue. I agree that powerful technologies can (and unfortunately probably in some cases will) be misused by a few-- witness the subject which initiated this thread-- but unrealistic efforts at control will ultimately have to give way to reality. As problematic as it no doubt is, I feel sure that a careful analysis of the issue will demonstrate that given the inevitable advance of knowledge, and the consequent increase of human power, the maturation of the human race is the best answer, because ultimately it is the only answer. > Godlike powers require godlike wisdom and restraint. They are not to be > looked for among humans. > To me, this is the crucial distinction. With any significant degree of despair or fear, and where wisdom is lacking and ignorance rampant, I would think that it should be far easier to convince a good fraction of the populace that, as you indicate, mere humans can't be trusted. We just don't have the capacity to be responsible for ourselves. We have to protect ourselves against... fill in the blank, torn from the headlines. "You", says the leader-in-chief, "need me to protect you." And with a contented sigh, we nestle into the arms of another dictator. In other words, it seems to me that anyone who really believes this should argue vociferously against the infection of democracy. If people can't be trusted, then, clearly, we need to be protected from ourselves. Knowledge will increase. Anyone who argues otherwise hasn't been paying attention in class. Can we restrict that knowledge to a chosen few? (Who will choose them? Who will choose the choosers?) Can we control the knowledge with force? Respectively, no and no. The remaining alternatives are few... > We are not very far from the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Soviet Gulag, Pol Pot > and the Khmer Rouge, and the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution > in China. The war in Iraq is still going on. We show little sign of dealing > effectively with either the climate crisis or peak oil. Optimism about human > behaviour is not warranted by the evidence. "Progress" seems to be not > general but highly localized and limited. > That's one point of view. The thing about the world that I notice is that it is sufficiently complex and extensive that, in the end, it depends mostly on the filter which we (generally unconsciously) apply as to what we see "out there", and therefor to what conclusion we reach. We are not very far from the conquest of small pox, the invention of the Internet, Woodstock, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, the spread of democracy and the establishment of the United Nations. Pessimism about human behavior would seem premature, based on the evidence. "Destruction and mayhem" do occur, but the clear general trend across mankind's history is to increasing unity and advancing wisdom. Progress seems discontinuous, particularly in some locations, but ultimately both universal and inevitable. It seems to me in other words-- and of course this finger points to me as much as anyone else-- that we tend to generalize based on our own internal condition. What we see in the world may inevitably say more about us-- inveterate Pollyanna or hard-eyed rationalist that we may be-- than it does about the world. > Just what makes you think that Hitler, Stalin and Curtis LeMay were not > "truly human?" > I'm guessing that you are reacting to my saying "How can I improve my armamentarium of virtues, the fundamental tools required for me to be truly human?", since the quoted words do not appear in my message otherwise. However, on that basis I'm not sure I understand your question. Therefore please forgive me if my comments are not on point. As regards Hitler and Stalin, it seems clear to me that they were, quite simply, monsters. (For my money, you can include Pol Pot and those folks from the radio station that catalyzed the massacre in Rwanda.) I think Maslow's thought applies, which, roughly translated, is that we do see, in our mind's eye, that mangy, sickly creature with the persistent cough in the small cage when we think "lion". Rather, "lion" is that ideal lion, standing on hill in Africa, strong, magnificent and lordly. In the same way, while H & S were certainly homo sapiens, genetically human, they were rather far from what I consider to be ideal humans. (As for Curtis LeMay, I frankly don't know enough about him to offer an opinion. I assume you are referring to his bombing of Japanese cities, similar to the bombing of Dresden in WWII. Tragic and terrible, without question.) But regardless, my comment was about me, not about others. My context and comment were clearly "from my point of view", and as such, pretty clearly about my approach to life, not a judgment of others. d. -- David William House "The Complete Biogas Handbook" |www.completebiogas.com| "Make no search for water. But find thirst, And water from the very ground will burst." (Rumi, a Persian mystic poet, quoted in /Delight of Hearts/, p. 77) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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