Re: Luddites attack genegineered crop

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Oct 29 1997 - 02:14:51 MST


"Peter C. McCluskey" <pcm@rahul.net> writes:

> asa@nada.kth.se (Anders Sandberg) writes:
> >To quote somebody who was interviewed on Swedish television
> >(unfortunately without the regional dialect which really made it
> >funny): "There should be an end to progress so people can keep their
> >jobs!". That view is dangerously common, and people in general fear
> >change despite the fact that it helps them in the long run. It is very
>
> People who have invested a lot of training in their current skills
> but don't know much about adapting those skills to new conditions,
> and people who have created cartels or other arrangements which inflate
> their salaries, often have real reasons to expect that they will be
> hurt by change.

Very true. And since this is a fairly large group in our societies,
they will be a significant roadblock to many of our more radical
projects. I have no doubt they will fail in the long run, but that
breakthrough is likely to hurt a lot of people, both due to the strong
reactions and due to the quick change.

-- 
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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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