From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Fri Aug 24 2001 - 16:32:44 MDT
From: "Brian Atkins" <brian@posthuman.com>
> Eugene Leitl wrote:
> >
> > It is extremely difficult to stick to just pounding nails all your life
if
> > you live in the beginning 21st century. It would have been possible a
few
> > decades ago, but barely.
>
> Actually where I live, housing construction continues to boom to the
> point where if we didn't have all those Mexicans moving here we'd be
> in a real shortage of labor.
Is this 2001, or are we still partying like it's 1899? "All those
Mexicans" ...? Forgive me, but are you being facetious or supercilious or
what ...? (Or maybe you're in a "wink-wink" mood - as in: let's ruffle a
few of those politically correct whiny liberals' feathers?)
A few weeks ago Natasha posted "I explain this by referencing other
technologies such as the telephone, television, computers and cell phones.
At first, only those with money or connections had them. Today, in downtown
Los Angeles, there are more Mexicans using cell phones than executives."
What are all these insinuations about "Mexicans"?
And -- perhaps this is even more important -- what is the way you talk about
a group of people say about you? This does not portend well for the future
if you guys are going to be in it, IMHO.
Olga
> > Whether people like it, or not, they will be forced to change careers
> > during their productive lifetime, and they should have the broadness of
> > skills and meta skills assisting them in something which is not
supported
> > by biology, quite the opposite.
> >
>
> Strangely I don't see a large movement in the US to replace service and
> labor type jobs with automated methods. So as far as I can tell the
> realistic viewpoint is that manual nail pounding will continue right up
> until Singularity. Hell even my local Subway sandwich shop still has a
> crew of 3 humans making my dinner. Webvan failed here because 80% of
> people actually prefer wasting an hour or more pushing an old cart around
> a store and then lugging the food up their house. Neo-Luddism or just what
> consumers really want?
> --
> Brian Atkins
> Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
> http://www.singinst.org/
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