From: salsbury@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (The Caterpillar Cannot Understand The Butterfly)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.xtropy-l
Subject: [stevegt@TerraLuna.SpaceCoast.Org: Re: Education and
              technomadics]
Date: 12 Apr 92 17:14:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: lictor.9204121714.AA22686
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To: technomads@bikelab.Corp.Sun.COM
Subject: Re: Education and technomadics
From: stevegt@TerraLuna.SpaceCoast.Org (Steve Traugott )
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 92 00:34:28 EDT
Organization: ---TerraLuna------*   ...Evolution at Work

sputnik!carson@Corp.Sun.COM (Carson Wilson) writes:

> But think about it.  Hasn't man been, for most of his life, for
> most of history, something of a "crank-turner?"  I mean, is
> repetitive labor some sort of unnatural corruption of the human
> spirit, or is it a natural part of man's physical existence, in
> which case perhaps it is our modern effort to ESCAPE repetitive
> labor which is the abberation?

Yes.  We're being "different" again, trying to get away from
something we've always done.  It's called evolution.  Our early
machines were force-manipulating (lever).  Then we came out with some
that are task-time-manipulating (cotton gin).  Now we have some that
are information-manipulating (uhhhh...).  The idea is; if a simpler
method (i.e.: simpler machine than the human body and mind) can be
effectively used to accomplish a task, it just makes good
resource-sense to use the simpler machine to do it, reserving the
more complex one for the tougher jobs.

> If that's the agenda, ok, so be it, just so we are going at it
> with our eyes open--aware that this is a new (and artificial)
> departure for the human species, not an attempt to address an
> unnatural social ill.

What's "artificial"?  Is a bird's nest artificial?

> To view it from another angle, what about the virtue of
> "perseverance?"  Doesn't this have to conflict with the war
> against "crank-turning" at some point?  Can't we go too far in
> our desire for inspiring, fascinating work, if it erodes the
> patience and persistence needed to follow things through, no
> matter how "degrading" they become?

I've thought about this one a lot, too, mostly because other people
have thrown the same concept in my face, saying I don't like doing
things that aren't stimulating.

Welll....  They're right.  I'm not a machine, and if I find myself
doing something that could be done well by a machine that's within my
reach, I for darn sure am going to build and program until the darn
thing does the job, letting me go on to something else.  *That's*
patience, persistence, and perserverance.  Doing the same thing over
and over again is just "crank-turning".  And why sit there and turn
the crank if you can just hook up a motor or a windmill to do it for
you while you go see what's on the other side of the next hill?

> And isn't the lack of
> perseverance in fact one of the things crippling our economic
> system in the U.S. (I'm referring to the oft-discussed lack of
> "long-term" as opposed to "short-term" business planning cited
> in comparisons between us and the Japanese)?

YES.  All of the above.  Lack of perserverance in the sense that I
just described.  Crank-turning masquerading as perserverance when in
reality what we're doing is just being a really stubborn and
unimaginative nation, with about as much collective sense as (and
remarkable similarities to) that windmill.  "Why do long-term
planning when we know we are going to be reacting to the short-term
market winds the way we always have?  We must be solidly based and
responsive in our short-term planning, so we can react quickly to
knee-jerk trends in our old true-blue economic indicators such as
manufacturing output, even though we've known for a long time that
the U.S. is now a service-based economy...  But my ancestors worked
in this industry, so we *must* keep it running!  Work harder, not
smarter!..."  Sounds like one of those Pink Floyd songs, doesn't it?

Has *anyone* besides me noticed (according to U.S. Department of
Commerce figures) that the U.S. is running a trade *surplus* in the
service sector almost equal in magnitude to our trade *deficit* in
manufacturing?  Look it up.  And then think about the wisdom of being
"persistent" (stubborn) in all the wrong things.

It's raining bytes!  Drop the wrench and run get a bit-bucket!.... ;-)

And here's a sobering thought for you: If fewer people do the
continual innovation in all the little things that make up mankind's
occupations, then we just won't evolve as fast to the changes in our
world.  Right?  Our world itself is *literally* changing.  Right?
Not meaning to sound too much like Marcus (Hi Marcus!), but according
to all of the statistical wisdom of normal biological systems, homo
sapiens and its many keystone and dependent species are in the final
soaring surge before an awful crash in population and standard of
living.  Yes, we've all heard this before, Club of Rome and all that,
but none of the doomsday forecasts seem to be coming true...  Perhaps
we evolve too fast for the forecasts to be credible?

The only way out of this kind of situation is either to continue to
evolve at least as fast as the growth curve (which *no* other species
can do), or absorb a very hard drop.  I like to think we're
perserverant and intelligent enough to keep things going.  But we've
*got* to continue to release ourselves from more and more of the
repetitive, mindless things that soak up our minds, energies, and
time.

*What* in the world does this have to do with technomadness?  Just
the fact that *communications* is one of the most influential things
that keeps cropping up in man's ability to evolve, and that right
now, in an increasingly mobile, information-based economy,
"technomadness" is a forefront suite of technologies.

And it comes home quickly.  I'm sitting here tonight, on an Air Force
base, writing this message to all of you, but I have no idea when
it'll go out...  There are some old precedents and paranoias I'm
having to overcome here, in order to try to find a place to do
something as simple (to you or me) as plugging my computer into a
phone line.  I've been in the USAF on active duty and as a Reservist
for almost six years now, and still little things like this mystify
me; how such an advanced-technology organization could be so
backwards in its everyday life... it hasn't completely got the idea
yet of perserverence in evolution as opposed to stubborness in
tradition.

But I don't want to just stiffen my brain and fall back on the
drudgeries and inefficiencies of paper mail "like everyone else" as
opposed to email and fax.  Time to evolve.  Anyone have any experience
with cheap radio links to the outside world in order to bypass a
local phone system?  ;-)

Steve

________________________________________________________________________
 Steve Traugott - Computers, Electronics, Organizations, and Aerospace
Unix, DOS, Data Communications - Administration, Programming, Consulting
   Aircraft Maintenance - Logistics Planning - RFC-Compliant Networks
       **      Currently Available - Contract or Permanent     **
       ** Send mail to resume-request@TerraLuna.SpaceCoast.Org **
stevegt@TerraLuna.SpaceCoast.Org          UUs-L@UBVM.BITNET List Manager
uunet!teraluna!stevegt                             stevegt@well.sf.ca.us
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