From: Cliff Stabbert (cps46@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Dec 13 2002 - 12:08:16 MST
Friday, December 13, 2002, 1:50:26 PM, Damien Broderick wrote:
DB> Eli sez:
>> I also didn't realize that your book to which you referred was available
>> online. I
>> http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/gotterdammerung.html
DB> It surely has some attractive passages. Leaving aside technical disputes for
DB> a moment, this seems to me to be the kind of point informed people should be
DB> making as often as possible to the public at large:
DB> < Some people fear that their lives will lose meaning without work. But the
DB> kind of work we do in industrial societies is a relatively recent invention.
DB> Primitive humans were very poor by our standards, but they generally didn't
DB> spend long hours in unpleasant working conditions away from their families.
DB> Their lives took meaning from personal relationships, and from their stories
DB> and other forms of expression. When super-intelligent machines do all the
DB> work, we will revert to this way of taking meaning from life, enhanced by
DB> the wealth and companionship provided by the machines. >
<snip further passages>
I can't help being reminded of J.G. Ballard's _Cocaine Nights_ when
contemplating such a promising scenario.
-- Cliff
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