Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!gwydir!gara!pmorriso
From: pmorriso@gara.une.oz.au (Perry Morrison MATH)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Future Work
Message-ID: <1477@gara.une.oz.au>
Date: 13 Apr 90 13:16:21 GMT
References: <9004101958.AA23998@stdc.jhuapl.edu> <1472@gara.une.oz.au> <22433@cs.yale.edu>
Organization: University of New England, Armidale, Australia
Lines: 30

In article <22433@cs.yale.edu>, news@cs.yale.edu (Usenet News) writes:
> Hogwash.  Point 1:  I can see little chance that the West will voluntarily 
> lower its standard of living in order to save the third world or the planet.
> People just aren't that non-self-interested.  

I think they will be when it begins to threaten THEIR survival. Ecological
problems don't stop at the border and these problems will be exacerbated
unless living standards are raised in the third world. Witness the Brazilian
rain forests. Those people want what we have and they will destroy one big
mutha of an oxygen factory to get it (plus pay off debt which is pretty much
the same thing). Do you breathe oxygen?

> Point 2:  even if the West did
> do such a thing, we would still be in deep trouble, planetarily, from such
> things as the destruction of the rain forest and the global use of petroluem
> fuels feeding the greenhouse effect.

This is just one big excuse to maintain current levels of western consumption
(and quite frankly, ecomomic oppression). It might look bleak, but neither
you or anybody knows that it's impossible to turn around. Modelling shows
us (if anything) just how little we understand about the dynamic processes
of the planet. I don't think the sacrifices (and many of them aren't sacrifices)
required are so steep that they aren't worth trying. Besides this, there is the
moral question: even if it's hopeless do I have to unnecesarily exacerbate it?
> 
> The only chance I think we have is to create a technology that DOESN'T waste
> resources or pollute; and I've mentioned my references (_Engines_of_Creation_
> in previous articles.
> 
I'd need to know about this before I could comment.