From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Sat Aug 31 2002 - 00:32:48 MDT
Robert wrote:
>I think Natasha is asking the wrong question -- I don't think its
>a political or social situation but an economic one.
Yes. I could have asked what the ideology system, but this includes
politics and sociology. Economics - isn't economics driving by the
political system? I mean at base level.
>My current
>business plan specifically includes an offshore component because
>it gives me a competitive advantage over 100% U.S. based companies
>that do not include that option. Managing it productively is
>tricky -- cross cultural organizations have problems that should
>not be taken lightly -- but the productivity improvements that
>result when it is done well justify the headaches.
>
>The "exporting of high-productivity jobs" is a natural process
>as we educate a greater and greater fraction of the world's
>population. The import of low-productivity people will cease
>once robots of sufficient skill become cheaper than migrant labor.
Exporting high productivity jobs is an excellent way to educate and
integrate. Sure, robotics will take over the day-worker/night-worker
repetition-type labor. When this happens, laborers will move up to
managerial positions. When the robotics get smarter, they will do the
management tasks and the managers will be the administrators. When the AI
become administrators, CEOs, etc., humans will take on other tasks, that
will be, hopefully, more toward inventive and creative use of their
time. There could even be low-productivity tasks in this refined area of
thinking. It's relative, isn't it?
>The factors driving this are low cost communication (driven by fiber
>& related technologies) and low cost transportation (driven by the
>low cost of ocean shipping as well as the drive for miniaturization --
>each "shipload" can now carry a higher value of goods).
Yes.
>I only see these things accelerating as we work our way through
>the foothills of the singularity mountain.
Driven by the business of human/transhuman needs. So, it boils down to
social psychology after all. The market is driving by culture which is
driven by social needs - what we identify with and what we are told or
advised that we should have or do. This in turn brings about business and
trade and established the economic tone. Politics get its big hands in it
and tries to sort it out and divide it in groups that fit its agenda. But
it really is grassroots (fabroots). How, when, where and why we
communicate and for what end.
Tipping point.
Natasha
45221b85.jpg
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:16:34 MST