Utopian tech?

[Laura Kelber]

And as long as we're talking about building up ...

https://www.change.org/p/councilwoman-laurie-cumbo-save-the-brooklyn-botanic-garden?recruiter=74819443&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-no_msg

On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 2:03 PM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>>
>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20170416/0f71c665/attachment.html>