From: bam@bnlux1.bnl.gov (Bruce A. Martin)
Subject: Aristotle on slavery & robotics (was Re: On Banning Private Discrimination
Organization: (none)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 18:57:16 GMT

In article <BsIBpB.8JA@newcastle.ac.uk> Chris.Holt@newcastle.ac.uk (Chris Holt) writes:
>pandit@ssd.intel.com (Milind Pandit,,,) writes:
>
>>But slavery is completely irrational.  If you need labor, it always
>>makes more sense to compensate some one for doing it willingly than
>>to coerce them into doing it.  Perhaps if the slave traders had
>>honestly provided such opportunities for willing laborers, they
>>would have been even more successful.
>
>Can someone explain to me how people can honestly believe this?
>Starting with the ancient Egyptians, for example...

Well, I'll leave it to others to argue about ancient Egypt,
but your question gives me an excuse to post my favorite quote from Aristotle:

	There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers 
	not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves.  
	This condition would be that each (inanimate) instrument 
	could do its own work, at the word of command or by 
	intelligent anticipation, like the statues of Daedalus
	or the tripods made by Hephaestus, of which Homer relates
	that "Of their own motion they entered the conclave of 
	Gods on Olympus" as if a shuttle should weave of itself, 
	and a plectrum should do its own harp playing.

While Aristotle may recognize a need for slaves in ancient Greece
(ca. 350 BCE), he envisions a future world whose technology has 
alleviated such a need.  
_______

BTW #1:

When I first encountered this quotation, it was on the cover of ACM's
"Computing Reviews" (in the late 60s).  It impressed me greatly that
Aristotle was, in effect, predicting that automation may finally provide
the means for man to become truly free.  

(OK, maybe I'm stretching the point a bit, but think about it.  
Nevertheless, it is still a comforting (and plausible) notion that 
modern technology may help satisfy human needs so thoroughly and 
cheaply as to eliminate the motive for most of the conflicts that 
have arisen in the past between individuals or between nations.  
i.e.  In abundance, there is much peace.)
_______

BTW #2:

While Aristotle presages electronic music machines as well as the 
Jacquard looms which Countess Lovelace tried to program, he also 
provides what I believe to be the earliest literary reference to 
automata:  Homer's description of the "tripods" which Hephaestus 
(Vulcan) created on his fiery forge.  (Clearly, this predates 
Karl Kapek's term "robot" by two and a half millenia.)

Based on this prior terminology, I mused that my own field of endeavor 
(now variously known as "computer science", "software engineering", 
"cybernetics", "programming", "analysis", or other unsatisfyingly 
inaccurate labels) perhaps should be called "tripodics" -- i.e. the 
study of "tripods", based on Homer's example of automata or self-acting 
robots.  When I later had to submit up a name for my consulting company,
I registered it as "Tripodics".  (Tripodics is a DBA in Suffolk County, 
NY and has its own bank account and IRS tax number under that name.)

At long last, I can reveal the secret behind the first line of my 
two .sig files (and the little doodads surrounding and underneath).

>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Chris.Holt@newcastle.ac.uk      Computing Lab, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     "NP-complete do you call it, Sir?  I wish it were undecidable."


MY SHORT SIG:

bam@bnl.gov (Bruce A. Martin)     /|\Master of the Tripods of Hephaestus./|\  
[My opinions are my property, belong to me only, and represent no one else!]
# include <discaimers.h>          /***** Marrou/Lord in '92 *****/
# delete BUSHLIPS,SlickWillie     /***** CALL 800-682-1776  *****/


LONG SIG:

BAM  /|\Master of the Tripods of Hephaestus./|\  Bruce A. Martin   (bam@bnl.gov)
~~~  [NOTE: Since my opinions are my property,]  Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
~o~  [they neither belong to nor represent my ]  911C / Brookhaven National Lab.
/|\  [employer, its customer, nor anyone else!]  Upton, NY 11973  (516) 282-5647 

# include <disclaimers.h>    	/***** Marrou/Lord in '92 *****/
# delete BUSHLIPS,SlickWillie	/**** CALL 800-682-1776  *****/
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