Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!klaatu.rutgers.edu!josh From: josh@klaatu.rutgers.edu (J Storrs Hall) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: Future Work (was Re: prognostications about expert systems) Message-ID: Date: 10 Apr 90 03:08:05 GMT References: <53291@bbn.COM> <3923@plains.UUCP> <1347@anvil.oz> <3994@plains.UUCP> <1354@anvil.oz> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 42 Duddy replies to Stinnet: "... Here is our problem - there is enough "wealth (and thanks to technology there is ever increasing efficiency in "creating objects and services repesenting wealth) but there are not enough "jobs, and there is not enough oppotunities for everyone to be comfortable. Who sez there is enough wealth? You may think the ultimate goal of humanity is to sit around picking fleas off each other, but I have higher aspirations than that. I won't be happy until each person can have his or her OWN moon rocket or super collider or space telescope. I won't be happy until each person can have these things because they have each produced that much value themselves. If all you want from life is a happy family and nice house in the suburbs, I say you have no vision. I say technology gives us the opportunity for each and every single individual person to be an *honest* selfmade billionaire. Would you want to reduce everyone in the world to wretched, grinding poverty on the edge of starvation--provided it could be done equally? Their only thought, a dim groping for their next bowl of cold, thin, gruel? Absolutely equal in body, mind, and spirit? Compared to the future I envision, that is exactly what you are doing. Compared to its potential, the present human condition is a wretched animal-like existence. ".... I challenge you to find the humanity "in each person (not the units of labour), to wish for the health and "comfort of each person, ... I challenge you, on the contrary, to find the god in the human beast, to base your aspirations on something more than bodily comforts, to find a system of values that spring from something higher than your stomach. How can you tell us that people are not to be judged in terms of the goods and services they produce, but then turn around and judge the social system solely in terms of the goods and services it provides them? --JoSH