Humans Should Not Be Machines
Posted by Gavin Doughtie Fri, 28 Oct 2005 21:32:00 GMT
I remember I met a mainframe programmer once who could compile IBM assembly code in his head.
Do you think he really misses doing that now?
People are creative, resourceful, pleasure-loving, inventive and funny.
So, why do we ennoble jobs that turn these wonderful creatures into interchangeable machines? Why do we fight to make assembly-line jobs high-paying?
We should be fighting to make it unprofitable to employ human beings in any endevour that is unpleasant, dangerous, demeaning or dull. Ancient Greek steam engines were never adopted because slaves were too cheap. Let’s go the other way, now that we live here in the future. Let’s push to make automation so cheap that even slaves are more expensive. (That way, you see, there’s no reason to have slaves).
That's "exactly what I think":http://philisha.net/articles/2004/04/16/Automaton. I like the parallel to slaves though; it puts things in a different light.
Oh boy. What happened to Textile? =(