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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: The Impact of Inventions
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Date: Thu, 2-Jul-87 14:39:19 EDT
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Posted: Thu Jul  2 14:39:19 1987
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Bill Ingogly writes:

> When I said 'poets,' I was referring to people like Ted Hughes, W. S.
> Merwin, John Ashbery, Ruth Stone, Amy Clampitt, and folks like them
> who are writing something other than jingles for TV commercials.

This strikes me as a very snobbish response.  If there is an outlet whereby
poets have a large impact, that establishes the importance of poetry.
Whether the poets in question are the ones commonly thought of as poets, and
anyone's opinion of the quality of their work, are both beside the point.

Furthermore, I would guess that the "serious" poets have more influence than
you think, through exactly these channels.  Without any real first-hand
knowledge on the question, I believe that the people who write the TV
jingles and sitcoms think of themselves as part of the literati, and are, in
vastly disproportionate numbers, amongst the readers of the serious poets.

One might argue that commercial writers have no real impact, since they have
to write what they are told to write.  I think this is a very hard position
to maintain.  There is still a creative process, and a myriad ways in which
the ideas of the writer can be reflected in the finished product.

On the original assumption: I think that institutions like the Congressional
Office of Technology Assessment are far more appropriate for this kind of
function than trying to have the developers produce an impact statement.
The developers are experts in how their product works; to assess impact, you
only need to know what it does, but must be in expert in understanding
social interactions.

In the end, though, I don't think we *can* really control our technology.
If one group doesn't develop something, somebody else will.  The best we can
do is to try to understand the implications, and change the details here and
there for best effect.  But ultimately, we are captives of our technological
development, and can only hope we like where it takes us.

Frank Adams                           ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Ashton-Tate          52 Oakland Ave North         E. Hartford, CT 06108