tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post3090156494148731761..comments2024-03-27T23:12:08.917-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Science Fiction and our Dreams of the FutureDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25880642530302877542014-10-16T03:09:40.840-07:002014-10-16T03:09:40.840-07:00n defense of plaster, it's not covered with pa...n defense of plaster, it's not covered with paper which enables mold. Of course I have read they now have paperless sheetrock.<br /><br />In defense of older music I will note the wretched MP3 and praise the old tube amplifiers, and real drums vs synthetics. And autotune. Granted, all those can be fixed and modern music does exist without those drawbacks.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58677871837612691832014-10-16T03:03:23.185-07:002014-10-16T03:03:23.185-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81715961351836842892014-10-15T21:10:52.015-07:002014-10-15T21:10:52.015-07:00It makes me happy that someone still thinks of me ...It makes me happy that someone still thinks of me as their young friend - Had a great time talking with students at Whitman college last week and one of the things we ended up talking about was the plague dystopias. <br /><br />something else we talked about the art world concept of the "white box" - ie the presumption that the blank space of the gallery isolates art work from the outside world; provides it a neutral ground within which to appear (one wonders if anyone ever believed it, but now its just a punching bag idea). <br /><br />But it lead to a discussion of the relative recentness of that idea. I argued that the white box was founded on the availability of cheap and easy wall board. <br /><br />Any guess as to when you would have heard the plaster lath ad you mentioned?starwarsmodernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06128785816151813198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7412322999344240622014-10-15T19:51:43.268-07:002014-10-15T19:51:43.268-07:00orry Ellen He, but your apologia-defense of the Ar...orry Ellen He, but your apologia-defense of the Arch-Druid grows ever weaker when you say things like: “it will likely follow the same path that all other civilizations before it followed: that of rise, apogee, and decline.”<br /><br />Um, some examples please? Note that I am not even asking you to prove that this happened to ALL or even a MAJORITY of past civilizations. I’d like to see if you could support it for any. At all. It is Spenglerism and part of the silliness that I talk about here:<br /><br />http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-tytler-insult-is-democracy-hopeless.html<br /><br />Sure, you’ll cite some cases like the fall of the Roman Empire… which did not fall in the richer, eastern half for another thousand years. Did nation conquer nation? Sure. But the model there is predation, not senescence. Please notice how you posited as a GIVEN AXIOM something that is not just without basis, but spectacularly false. So much for all the rest that is supported by the “axiom”.<br /><br />==<br /><br />I'll discuss further under the NEXT posting.<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-29464311112191606142014-10-15T19:44:22.211-07:002014-10-15T19:44:22.211-07:00On music (though some of this applies to other art...On music (though some of this applies to other arts)...<br /><br /><br />One thing to remember is that for the vast majority of history, there were no recordings. Even sheet music is fairly recent by that standard. It's only in the last century or so that century or so that we've been able to listen to music displaced in time and/or distance from the musician.<br /><br />And while it's true that we are awash in music, technology has brought with it another aspect. Music made today competes not only with other music made today, but all music recorded ever (modulo some that's lost). And tomorrow's music has eve more temporal competition.<br /><br />Which is why any discussion of when better music was made amuses me.<br /><br />Imagine a world where a teenager, rather like the Brits discovering early 20th century blues, could rediscover any genre from any place and time.raitonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-47313296051926534422014-10-15T19:26:04.096-07:002014-10-15T19:26:04.096-07:00So Druidism is a cult? Who knew? If it's all a...So Druidism is a cult? Who knew? If it's all about gaining followers by brilliantly explaining how perpetual motion is impossible, I remain unimpressed.<br />As for declines of empires, perhaps Byzantium is something to consider. It sadly only lasted 1400 years.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-2896084615101568972014-10-15T19:02:25.129-07:002014-10-15T19:02:25.129-07:00matthew:
Shut the hell up about how great the 60&...matthew:<br /><i><br />Shut the hell up about how great the 60's and 70's were. I was there too (I grew up around a professional soundman, used to play with Pigpen, got stepped on by BB King as a baby, etc.) Any belief that there is ever a "golden age" of creative thought is simply ignoring what is going on around the listener.<br /></i><br /><br />"What do we need <b>new</b> songs for? Don't they know that rock and roll achieved perfection in 1974? It's a scientific fact!" - Homer SimpsonLarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-46112458118638601212014-10-15T14:19:38.359-07:002014-10-15T14:19:38.359-07:00Two hundred years ago every town and village had t...Two hundred years ago every town and village had their own farmers and the supporting craftsmen that enabled the farms to work. Blacksmiths, carpenters, and all the people you need to keep horses and oxen alive and productive were kept busy so those farms could feed an expanding population. In Europe the weather had been mild for a time and people were breeding faster than the food supply. This was the time of Malthus. The rise of industry changed all that by beginning to mechanize the farms and transport of their commodities to market. From a world where the vast majority of people worked the farms or the supporting crafts, we moved to a modern world were we manage to produce much, much more with less than 2% of our people on the fields. The crafts themselves haven’t died, though, and due to the population explosion that occurred with all this new productivity, it is possible more people know them as hobbies than did in an age where they were necessary for survival.<br /> <br />Amateurs have other demands upon them they must meet for their survival making them professionals in those other skills, but those change fast in recent times. It wasn’t long ago that we needed people to make and fix 8-track tape decks, but there aren’t many of the devices left and labor demand has moved on. Will a future world have hobbyists who can still do it? Probably. We rarely drop a skillset while we have enough surplus time and population to maintain it.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-66011945961225714292014-10-15T13:42:07.500-07:002014-10-15T13:42:07.500-07:00@All:I find there is quite a lot of simplification...@All:I find there is quite a lot of simplification of Archdruidical thought here. That is unsurprising as his essays are meant to provoke just this sort of reaction from people who hold what he calls the civil religion of Progress, much like evangelical Christians react to a slighting of Jesus. <br /><br />Nonetheless, as a committed atheist and empiricist myself, I find the Archdruid one of the most acute and educated social commentators that I have ever read. His knowledge of history and philosophy is unparalleled, and his insights on the psychology of religion are invaluable – not to mention his treatment of, I kid you not, magic, which as a rationalist I found perfectly acceptable and incredibly illuminating. <br /><br />He is also quite a firm opposer of simple binary thinking – there’s a good essay on his blog about that, if you care to look for it – so ascribing him simply to the category of doomers is quite mistaken when he spends an equal amount of time lambasting those who have rejected the Myth of Progress to embrace its mirror opposite, the Myth of Apocalypse. <br /><br />I cannot aim to do his thought justice – having read his blog for over two years and with the advantage of a classical education I would still find it hard to properly summarize his ideas in a few lines, as they are so rich in innovative perspectives.<br /><br />However I think it worth to explain one of the basic tenets that drives his outlook on the future. Quite simply he does not consider the current civilization to be qualitatively different from those that preceded it (that would be the real point of contention with Brin’s thinking). As such, it will likely follow the same path that all other civilizations before it followed: that of rise, apogee, and decline. A slow, punctuated decline quite unlike that preached by most believers in the Myth of Apocalypse, but a decline nonetheless. Accusing him of Hegelian teleologism is then quite a drastic misinterpretation of its entire system of thinking.<br /><br />He does not though invoke simply sitting back and watching the decline happen. In fact, that is what he accuses most believers in progress of doing: recognising the challenges, and shirking away from them by saying “they’ll think of something”, “they” here being scientists in lab coats. If that isn’t a religious view interpreting scientists as priests building higher and bigger Pyramids to Quetzalcoatl as the jungle around them runs out of water, I don’t know what it is. <br /><br />Instead, he asks each individual to take action, first personally, and then at a community level. To make changes to their own lives, not only in the direction of sustainability and lowering resource consumption, but also towards learning crafts and skills that would allow the conservation of some of the contemporary world’s scientific discoveries.<br /><br />As much as the medieval monks alleviated the Dark Ages by preserving some of the Classical World’s knowledge in their monasteries for the benefit of future generations, so we should work to preserve as much of the current scientific knowledge as possible to make sure that the next civilization emerging from the ruins of ours will start from a much stronger base than would be otherwise.<br /><br />Much as you might disagree with his vision for the future, I would still advise any self-respecting contrarian to read the Archdruid closely. He has much more to say and teach than you might imagine.<br /><br />As a closing point, if you are interested in his reasoning for dismissing solar power as solution to maintain our current technological society (not any technological society), then you can read this essay and the two that follow: http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/energy-follows-its-bliss.htmlAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15053532212997330500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73767560206650739982014-10-15T12:50:25.761-07:002014-10-15T12:50:25.761-07:00Press marklew@Midboss - the Lockheed fusion announ...Press marklew@Midboss - the Lockheed fusion announcement is little more than hype at this stage. Basically they are saying that they have a design idea that is very small, so that they can iterate experiments quickly to test out the ideas, which if proved correct, allows for a prototype in 5 years. But they don't have the knowledge yet, and are looking to hire experts. If it all pans out, NUCLEAR FUSION ENERGY. (Great for those flying S.H.I.E.L.D. carriers in "Avengers".) I wouldn't hold my breath until they can demonstrate that they have a working prototype, which would have effectively undercut all those $bns used for fusion research at ITER, and NIF. It's like the ever hopeful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell" rel="nofollow">Polyweell reactor</a> that never actually seems to get any nearer a proof of concept.<br /><br />Lockheed video:<br /><a href="http://aviationweek.com/blog/high-hopes-can-compact-fusion-unlock-new-power-space-and-air-transport" rel="nofollow">Lockheed fusion video</a>Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-76395848429000907612014-10-15T12:01:40.300-07:002014-10-15T12:01:40.300-07:00I can speak to the quality and quantity of music c...I can speak to the quality and quantity of music currently floating around. I have been a professional both as a musician and as an recording / sound engineer, though I am not at this time. But I keep my finger on the pulse very closely. <br /><br />Listen to me once, Boomers. The music made in the past is in no uncertain way any "better" than the music made now. Anything else is rearward-viewing nostalgia. Shut the hell up about how great the 60's and 70's were. I was there too (I grew up around a professional soundman, used to play with Pigpen, got stepped on by BB King as a baby, etc.) Any belief that there is ever a "golden age" of creative thought is simply ignoring what is going on around the listener. Or viewer. Or reader. It is only nostalgia or laziness or fear of the unknown that keep the very idea of a golden age alive. <br /><br />Very few of the regular commenters here are lazy about their own modes of thought. It pains me to think of those same individuals saying that music was better when they were kids. What utter bullshit. You live in a time of wonders, like most times are. <br /><br />"We used up all the melodies." is a total crock, David. Throw off the nostalgia and listen to some good (new) music. <br /><br /> matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25300063669823309532014-10-15T11:43:08.355-07:002014-10-15T11:43:08.355-07:00"Used up all the melodies", not so much ..."Used up all the melodies", not so much Dr. Brin, our generation is no longer a primary focus of young musicians. Styles have moved on and we can now wince at memories of our parent's opinions of our favored music, first generation metal can now be heard on oldies stations, Tim H., who still has his Black Sabbath albums.Tim H.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64548371097413854092014-10-15T11:02:08.610-07:002014-10-15T11:02:08.610-07:00Actually, my impression rather than been threatene...Actually, my impression rather than been threatened by technology was that amateur or small scale artistic creators were experiencing something of a renaissance thanks to internet. <br /><br />Steam gave indie game creators the chance to go and create something different from the increasing generic AAA market. Result: Minecraft, Amnesia the Dark Descent.<br /><br />Kickstarter gave many new projects the chance to shine and are leading to many interesting and original ideas seeing the light of day.<br /><br />PDFs have given amateur authors and tabletop rpgs the opportunity to get their work known to the public without the problems and costs that go with selling physical copies.<br /><br />Deviant Art gives artists the chance to show their creations to the whole world and some even make money through commissions. <br /><br />Even 4chan managed to created something good with Katawa Shoujo, a surprisingly (on account of it coming from 4chan) tasteful Visual Novel about life in a school for handicapped people. <br /><br />We also have a new wave of self made internet celebrities who make a living thanks to their creations. That Guy with the Glasses is one example but others like the french Pen of Chaos and Joueur du Grenier also stand out.<br /><br />So in fact overall, we're coming out ahead artistically in my opinion. The automation of work is another subject matter that indeed is going to soon require a very radical rethink in how to handle work and the economy. We're in the 21st century and still stuck using economic theories from the 19th. <br /><br />On a purely different note, it seems we have good news on the energy side today: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/15/us-lockheed-fusion-idUSKCN0I41EM20141015<br />Midbossnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-6365096463422870452014-10-15T09:15:51.564-07:002014-10-15T09:15:51.564-07:00Tony Fisk - Thanks for pointed out Star Trek Conti...Tony Fisk - Thanks for pointed out Star Trek Continues. Once I got past a Mythbuster on the bridge crew it was quite enjoyable.<br /><br />For anyone who is worried about the job prospects of skilled welders, they are in very high demand. The world contains several hundred thousand things more deserving of your concern.<br /><br />Maybe music is just reverting to a default "normal" situation. It was after all only a historical blink of the eye where performers could sell records without expectation of mass piracy. Before and after that the creative juices and the paychecks come from live performances. Wedding dances instead of Hit Singles? I think we are seeing more performing musicians. Better music? A matter of taste.<br /><br />TacitusTacitushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17007086196578740689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-33595230850386158612014-10-15T09:06:11.550-07:002014-10-15T09:06:11.550-07:00@locum Art has become a mass-produced parody of it...@locum <i>Art has become a mass-produced parody of itself</i><br /><br />That is exactly what artists were saying in the C19th and early C20th, resulting in new art styles - abstract, cubism, etc. I find it hard to imagine that we've "run out" of ideas to express ourselves.<br /><br />Literary people have been worrying whether we've run out of ideas for novels too. More likely, the sheer volume of output is noise swamping the signal of freshness, especially when publishing is in the hands of relatively few publishers who tend to be risk averse.<br /><br /><br /><i>One hundred years ago, every small city, most towns and many villages possessed their own craftsman, musicians, scientists, orchestras, theatres & vibrant art scenes until technology, with it techniques for out-sourcing, rapid recording, reproduction & dissemination via industrial press/album/radio/tape/film/disc, forced all of those marginal creative types 'out of business', turning the select 5% into professionals while marginalising the remaining 95% to unpaid amateur status.</i><br /><br />That threat has been a constant litany. Movies, radio, tv, the internet have all resulted in greater consumption, of higher quality material, but with a "winner takes all" model. Live opera, Broadway theater, NY philharmonic have become extremely expensive, affordable by the few. Yet we can enjoy their output at a remove by recording. I prefer that than the village music band. <br /><br />Anything that can be mass produced cheaply with "good enough" quality will improve the economy. Yes, some people will be relegated to doing "art" for free as a hobby, but the vastly larger economy opens up opportunities that were not available before. <br /><br />The issue today, is whether the rate of automation really will, this time, eliminate more jobs than can be created, resulting in social upheaval. We just don't know, because while we can see the jobs that get replaced, we find it hard to see the future work that will be created. I remain cautious, but optimistic.Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82037436814006915292014-10-15T08:41:42.364-07:002014-10-15T08:41:42.364-07:00Now here's an article that's right up Brin...Now here's an article that's right up Brin's alley: <br /><a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-creepy-ways-corporations-are-turning-you-into-addict" rel="nofollow">"7 Creepy Ways Corporations are Turning You into an Addict"</a><br />http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-creepy-ways-corporations-are-turning-you-into-addict<br /><br />It even mentions rage addiction.sociotardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11697154298087412934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58742224608272987382014-10-15T07:57:13.180-07:002014-10-15T07:57:13.180-07:00Zero-sum thinking, always and forever! Our residen...Zero-sum thinking, always and forever! Our resident platonist decries "ends" as meaningless. But what about seeking the goal of a civiization that empowers all people with a vast array of means? To seek a myriad, diversely positive ends? Is THAT end goal an.... end?<br /><br />Forest for the trees. To romanticize the past is utterly dopey. 99% of people never discovered that they had any talents at all. Those who did not die or become crippled from grueling labor spent their lives in a single trade-craft in which - perhaps - they developed some sublime skill...<br /><br />...But only within a narrow range of prescribed actions, tools, methods and products, rigidly enforced by guilds and lords and hyperconservative society, perhaps sharing one new tweak with peers or apprntices, per decade....<br /><br />... and when you discovered a new trick you kept it secret, because it was the only way (for 10,000 years) that an innovator could benefit from his innovation. Resulting in LOSS of so many innovations! Heron's steam engines, Baghdad batteries, anthekithera devices...<br /><br />What utter bull. There is ONE reason why artists don't seem to stand out from the masses, the way they used to. Because for the first time kids with talent are OFTEN discovered and encouraged, and so we have so vastly MORE ART than ever that it is impossible to stand out as much. You go about your days awash in it, drowning in it... ignoring it.<br /><br />Except music. Sure. i will grant that one. Us boomers USED UP ALL THE MELODIES! A limited resouce. nostra culpaDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30838190466556268952014-10-14T23:53:14.404-07:002014-10-14T23:53:14.404-07:00The question of technology vs jobs looks to be a d...The question of technology vs jobs looks to be a done deal, the answer is jobs will be eliminated as fast as technology allows. The next question is "Can survival be disconnected from labor?", if so, can the transition be gentle? The ongoing devaluation of labor that's not easily mechanized is another matter and seems to be just more one-sided class warfare.Tim H.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-49864697700958524072014-10-14T23:37:55.159-07:002014-10-14T23:37:55.159-07:00Duncan continues to confuse ends and means, so muc...<br /><br />Duncan continues to confuse ends and means, so much so that he may as well 'stay in bed' because 'getting up' in not an end, nor is it a product. Neither are 'striving', 'trying', 'caring' or 'hoping'. <br /><br />Ends are indeterminant; means determine; ends are product, outcome or result; and means are agency, instrument or art.<br /><br />Means matter more than ends because means (as in 'meaning') imply significance while ends and outcomes terminate.<br /><br />Success is the End of Hope<br /><br /><br />Bestlocumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64488734513171630312014-10-14T22:29:42.356-07:002014-10-14T22:29:42.356-07:00A good plumber, electrician, or stonemason is a th...A good plumber, electrician, or stonemason is a thing of beauty and to be valued. Anyone remember the Arts and Crafts movement, or Bauhaus, where form follows function? "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." ~~William Morris<br /><br />I frequently do my own repairs around the house. If it is something about which I feel shaky, like gas plumbing or high voltage, I will defer to those with licenses. Often I find it more satisfying to do my own, and occasionally of better quality. I've installed a dishwasher, laid a tile floor, countertop and backsplash, replaced walls, and installed a new water pump on my car. Functional? Check. Beautiful? Depends on your definition. Working plumbing is definitely beautiful!<br /><br />If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend you read Andy Weir's <i>The Martian</i>. It's a man in a tight spot, who uses ingenuity to survive. Not in the least dystopian, and downright hopeful for anyone who thinks we are all becoming turnips.<br /><br />TheMadLibrarianTheMadLibrariannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51235875309431012432014-10-14T20:55:46.438-07:002014-10-14T20:55:46.438-07:00Philistine - Yes probably
"they confuse the ...Philistine - Yes probably<br /><br />"they confuse the end-product with the actual creative process"<br /><br />I will go along with that <br />I am "Task Focused"<br />What counts is the product,<br />You may enjoy the "creative process" but if it doesn't produce anything you may as well have stayed in bed Duncan Cairncrossnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41246622218955926462014-10-14T20:50:16.061-07:002014-10-14T20:50:16.061-07:00Don's fears about technology -- especially the...Don's fears about technology -- especially the ongoing devaluation of music, art and craftsmanship -- are entirely reasonable and, if he believes anything our resident technophiles have to say on this matter, he's bought a 'bill of goods': Music, as we once knew it, is dying and almost dead; Art has become a mass-produced parody of itself; Craftsmanship has become a quaint and unprofitable (heavy emphasis on the 'unprofitable') little hobby; and the so-called 'Age of the Amateur' means that creative-type artists everywhere can no longer make a living with their product because (by definition) 'professionals' receive payment for their labours but amateurs do not.<br /><br />One hundred years ago, every small city, most towns and many villages possessed their own craftsman, musicians, scientists, orchestras, theatres & vibrant art scenes until technology, with it techniques for out-sourcing, rapid recording, reproduction & dissemination via industrial press/album/radio/tape/film/disc, forced all of those marginal creative types 'out of business', turning the select 5% into professionals while marginalising the remaining 95% to unpaid amateur status.<br /><br />In truth, this technological approach did work for a time; competition did create a virtual 'cornucopia' by the elimination of both the marginal producer & their marginal products; but, now that those marginal producers & products have been eliminated, the remaining producers of everything (music, art, science, clothing, crafts, etc) have little or no incentive for product improvement because it is easier and cheaper to simply discourage the reentry of the 'amateur' in the name of 'professionalism'; and these is especially true in the halls of Academia, Politics & Science.<br /><br />Philistines like Duncan (Is it a "cheat" when I use a MIG welder rather than heating up a forge and hammer welding?) could care less because they confuse the end-product with the actual creative process; writers like David can afford to wax poetic about 'The March of Progress' until they (too) get replaced by computerised 'Silver Egghead' like wordsmithing programs; and everyone else (myself included) is too worried about themselves to care about the marginalisation of the artistic other until 'they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me'.<br /><br />Up until now, most of our technological advances have been about 'dehumanisation' because humans cost money. Workers demand a living wage; the professional musician expects payment for his professionalism; the craftsman expects to get paid for their expertise; the bourgeois middle demand their 'piece of the action'; and we have looked to technology (especially Scientific Management) to streamline this entire process in order to create this virtual cornucopia of ours by 'eliminating the middleman'.<br /><br />Unfortunately, we have also eliminated ourselves in the process -- or, at least everything that we once valued -- including art, music, creativity and, most possibly, our humanity. <br /><br /><br />Best locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-985122270248195392014-10-14T17:48:36.798-07:002014-10-14T17:48:36.798-07:00Regarding craft work by skilled labor, I like to u...Regarding craft work by skilled labor, I like to use a Bradbury analogy. I know a number of people with what appear to me to be useless, ancient craft skills, but to them, those skills define a part of them. It's as if they are the book they wish to preserve. Once I realized that connection, I realized I was doing it too. In a world of GPS satellites and smartphones all equipped to use them, my name is Foxhunt. Do you know my story?Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-27131164074110963652014-10-14T17:44:18.317-07:002014-10-14T17:44:18.317-07:00A skilled welder isn't forced to become a part...A skilled welder isn't forced to become a part-time anything. They are out-competed in the market for the service they provide. It isn't about forcing wages down. It is about our robots being cheaper to operate than the human being is to pay.<br /><br />Some people take the competive pressure on them far too personally. It is rare there is anyone in particular to blame when one loses the competition, but we want there to be one anyway. It is much easier to be angry if we can attribute our loss to the malice of another.<br /><br />I'm a software engineer and have had to stay nimble over the last 20 years. Sometimes I help knock others out of the market. Sometimes I am the person who gets pushed aside. About 10 years ago I was experiencing wage pressure H1B imported labor here in the US. That usually meant people from India who were willing to take about 1/3 the wage I wanted. I could have complained about cheap CEO's, but focused instead on teaching my competitors what they were actually worth in the US market. It really helped, of course, that they weren't robots. 8)Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-65967335431730810102014-10-14T17:31:58.527-07:002014-10-14T17:31:58.527-07:00I agree with David about the awful takeover by dys...I agree with David about the awful takeover by dystopian fiction. But I have to stick up for Margaret Atwood. So I have to frame it so: don't read dystopian books but if you do, make it an Atwood!<br /><br />I'm into the new Jumper books (of course!) now. They emerged as YA books so it's not weighty. I like how Gould takes old tropes and dives deeper into the ramifications. A lot of thought went into them.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.com