Utopian tech?

[Laura Kelber]

I just spent a week with some of my Mormon in-laws. I'm still solidly in
curb-your-language mode.

On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 2:01 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Getting fucked in the ass" is very Pynchonian lingo and meanings. As
> well.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Apr 16, 2017, at 1:47 PM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I worked as a union electrician in NYC from 1981 to 1999, and even during
> that period I saw various "improvements" that downgraded the level of skill
> (manufacture and maintenance of temporary light - a big boondoggle for
> electricians - going from soldering, to splicing to crimp-on, for example).
> I mostly worked new construction, followed by large-scale renovation jobs
> and public works jobs, and while much of it hasn't changed, I can imagine a
> move throughout the industry to make the work less skilled, via pre-fabbed
> parts. One huge change is the advent of wireless tech. Computer cables were
> just getting to be a thing, and getting on the phone crew was also a sweet
> deal: not only was the work lighter, but if you located a live riser wire,
> you could clip your handset on - free long distance for all! That's all
> gone. It's no surprise that with the move to lessen the skills that
> non-union electrical work is on the rise in a solid union town like NYC.
> The construction unions have always been politically conservative - from
> Nixon to Reagan to Trump - precisely because they considered themselves
> skilled "labor aristocrats," ergo irreplaceable. Now they're getting fucked
> in the ass (in construction parlance), but they're taking it like meek
> little lambs. The old, effective hit-the-scab-with-a-lead-pipe routine -
> absolutely crucial to the building of a strong labor movement in the past,
> alas - has fallen out of favor in a society that has such harsh prison
> terms, not to mention YouTube footage.
>
> But depending where your son lives, becoming a licensed, self-employed
> electrician is an awesome career choice that's still got a great future.
>
> LK
>
> PS - In my day, the construction shanties were wall-papered with explicit
> porn and graffiti, and guys would read aloud from porn magazines when women
> were around. Some of my present-day electrician sisters tell me that
> there's less paper porn. Instead, the guys play porn movies on their mobile
> devices to harass their female co-workers. Progress?
>
> On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 11:24 AM, jody boy <jodys.gone2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> My son's an EE. He is seriously considering getting his electrician's
>> license
>>
>>
>>  On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 10:20 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > There's a bit of literature about how the robots vs computers thing
>> > can also be seen as manual vs mental labour being automated. That also
>> > might key into who gets most alarmed - blue collar Luddites were
>> > scoffed at by the leisured class who couldn't imagine wanting to do
>> > those jobs anyway, but when even journalism is being done by
>> > smartypants computers, you get media organisations going into a spin
>> > about the death of civilisation.
>> >
>> > On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 1:31 AM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >> 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
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>
>
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