Utopian tech?

[Laura Kelber]

Is there a distinction between robots and computers in this discussion? For example, the printing industry has been largely marginalized by computers. Even though large-scale printing of newspapers, magazines, and books ( Mark, can you weigh in on this?) may still be performed in robotized printing plants, the products themselves are being replaced by online versions. And the evil twin of computerization is globalization. Robots replacing humans has a quaint, Wellsian sound, in the face of such a vast cultural shift.

At the other extreme, it's hard to imagine the construction industry being robotized or computerized. Total Recall (1990) has a joke about this, and it still holds. Sure, you can prefab modules in a robotized factory, then stack and connect them on site. But the economics of transporting all of that weight can't compete with mixing and pouring concrete on site. Because if you want to build high ( as they apparently do), you need​ concrete. Plumbing and electrical, I'll concede could be usurped by new technologies that render the skilled trades obsolete. But laborers can stare any robot down.

Laura

Laura

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID

ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

>Not everyone viewed job loss as a promise of more leisure or education
>time.  The government and business countered anxiety but failed to
>invest in real solutions for the most vulnerable workers. Without
>unions the workers are more and more like Bartelby working for a John
>Jacob Astor.
>
>Remarks Upon Signing Bill Creating the National Commission on
>Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress.
>August 19, 1964
>
>Technology is creating both new opportunities and new obligations for
>us-opportunity for greater productivity and progress--obligation to be
>sure that no workingman, no family must pay an unjust price for
>progress.
>
>Automation is not our enemy. Our enemies are ignorance, indifference,
>and inertia. Automation can be the ally of our prosperity if we will
>just look ahead, if we will understand what is to come, and if we will
>set our course wisely after proper planning for the future.
>
>That is the purpose of this commission. I hope and I expect that its
>work will benefit the workingman and benefit the businessman, and
>serve the interests of the farmer and the professionals and all of our
>people in America.
>
>On Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 7:18 PM, Krafft, John M. <krafftjm at miamioh.edu> wrote:
>> Not to argue with Monte, for sure, but also, remember when robots were
>> supposed to take over all the unpleasant jobs and leave us _all_ so
>> much more time for education and cultured leisure? "Job loss" was a
>> promise, not a threat.
>>
>> John
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>-
>Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
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