From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Tue Apr 11 2000 - 20:18:06 MDT
T0Morrow@aol.com wrote:
> <snip>
> >From <http://www.salon.com/tech/view/2000/04/10/joy/index2.html>.
>
> Set aside Joy's disappointingly juvenile views on political economy (lifted
> straight out of Dickinson) and his muddled thinking about how some collective
> "we" chooses the shape of the world (ignoring Arrow's Theorem). Does he
> really think that "the whole economic system we have was designed"? It would
> be another--and accurate--thing to say that "the economic system arose from
> human action." But to call it "designed" suggests that Joy fails to
> appreciate how spontaneous orders result from human action but not human
> *design.* His oversight leaves me wondering if he really understands
> evolution at all.
>
> Can well-meaning gadflies do no better than Joy? What a shame; we would all
> benefit from better informed--or at least better articulated--criticisms of
> unbounded technological progress.
Bill Joy has become afflicted with that sickness previously constrained
to the Broadway/Hollywood actor/actress/musician: the delusion that
being a genius at one thing makes your opinion on anything else at all
important or more worthwhile than the average slob.
Mike Lorrey
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:27:57 MST