Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-athena.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amd!decwrl!decvax!mit-athena!yba
From: yba@mit-athena.ARPA (Mark H Levine)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Drifting sideways into economics
Message-ID: <215@mit-athena.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 23-Jul-84 23:49:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-athe.215
Posted: Mon Jul 23 23:49:10 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jul-84 08:46:23 EDT
References: <4065@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Project Athena, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 29

I must believe you missed the point(s) Laura.

As for pride, there are some folks out of work these days, and others
who feel they have to take any work that presents itself or starve.
Automation nor philosophy will not rescue these people, nor will your
job satisfaction be an anodyne to their hot summers.

If we do have the means to produce goods and services (THIS IS AN ASSUMPTION--
PAY ATTENTION) without intensive human labor, by employing, say, robots and
AI systems, then the amount a human can consume of these products is no
longer equal to the amount of work he does, nor to the amount of work we
all do divided by the number of us.  Now how do we divide the goods and
services?

When I said you think ill of the human spirit, it was because of the implicit
belief we have nothing better to do with our time than toil.  Not because
I think work is useless!  If an automated economy is producing food and
steel and rocket fuel, I don't need to rip anyone off to go exploring
space--once you are in space it is not a zero-sum game anymore.

I really disagree--just because you eat does NOT mean someone has to pay
for your food.  People ate long before we had economies, and the stuff
literally just grew on trees.  We can harvest a whole lot of things
that just grow so long as we don't have blinders on, and both feet
rooted solidly in yesterday.  Send me a path to you relative to
decvax and I'll be happy to continue this private mail.

-- 
yba%mit-heracles@mit-mc.ARPA		UUCP:	decvax!mit-athena!yba