From: Greg S. Bartels 
To: technology@lists.village.virginia.edu 
Subject: Re: Technological advance and its consequences
Date: Wednesday, December 09, 1998 7:13 PM

back from vacation, a couple of interesting posts...

here's a snippet from "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." 

>Wouldn't it make sense, therefore, to try to channel
>research (etc.) into areas where the payoffs at least seem
>relatively more likely to be constructive and less likely
>to lead to waking nightmares?  More public health-oriented


"more constructive" and "waking nightmares" are meanings we invented.
(i.e. they're subjective) there is no empirical test you can 
invent to put something on the "waking nightmare" scale, 
(although the skovill units is a pretty good scale for hell)

;)

so what you're left with is for people to decide what's constructive
and what's waking nightmare material, and then have them allocate 
money on it. that, theoretically, is what already happens in 
government sanctioned research. the money is funneled down the 
constructive holes and away from the nightmare holes.

the problem comes from the simple fact that you will never have
unaninimity on any possible topic. then what do you do? 
at that point it becomes a political process of voters, lobbyists,
and Phd's taking congressmen out for wild nights on the town
in hopes of getting a grant. 

its not a technological issue, its an issue with the political process.

is there a political philosophy list somewhere? here's my soapbox...

Socrate wanted 'philosopher kings' because he believed that the democratic 
government currently running things was in the process of collapsing. I believe
it eventually did get overrun some time later.

philosopher kings would figure out what is 'right' and what is 'justice'
and implement that in the system. Plato believed these concepts existed
first and that reality came after it. he was an idealist.
(my version of Socrates in 50 words or less)

anyway, we dont have philosopher kings, and people have been struggling with
a political system that is fair, just, and good, but the problem is that
it takes people to define fair just and good, and people just aint 
fair just and good if left to their own devices. that's why they want a 
government anyway, because there's a lot of unfair, unjust, and bad people
running around.

so, in short, people are their own problem.

Here's a snippet from "Ken Chen" 

>( BW)(ISSO) Stunning Top Secret Military Documents Published On Internet
>Revealing Recovery of Extraterrestrial Vehicles and Bodies During Truman
>Administration

Hell yes, little green men (and green, long legged, sultry, blue haired women)
have been vacationing on earth for thousands of years. the sphynx, pyramids,
the statues on Easter Islands, and the Aztec and Incan pyramids are all
remnants of a once great and glorious amusment park built here on Earth.

developed by the Ko'lth Oqur-in from the Wli-Ro system, 
around 3700 BC, Earth was one of the most commerciallized 
alien tourist traps in this sector of the galaxy. It enjoyed
amazing commercial success for some time and expanded to Venus
for a period until the wide-spread capitalism had deforested that
planet and its entire eco-sphere collapsed. Earth remained however
and flourished for thousands of years as the most popular tourist
trap, gambling site, and brothel (though only unofficially on that
last item).

As the local lifeforms began to evolve and advance, it was relatively
easy for the owners to keep them away from the sites through an occasional
'act of god' which consisted of explosions, fire, and laser light shows
used by one of the local music acts. 

for many thousands of years this continued until bankruptcy befell
the Ko'lth Oqur-in when they made some bad investments in some crooked
deals that went sour. the tourist trap of Earth was shut down and most 
of it was sold for scrap, except for the objects to large to transport
off the planet. 

but advertising broadcast thousands of years ago are still traveling through
space and occassionally get picked up by inhabitants of the other galaxies,
who then make a trip to Earth, only to find everything is shut down.

Those coming from backwater galaxies usually come for the amusement
park, and occasionally are niaeve enough to ask a government official for
directions, only to be led into an airforce hanger and sliced up.

those coming because of teh brothel advertisements are usually the
one causing all the livestock mutilations. This usually stems from a
mismatch in the anatomy of alian and livestock, which usually kills
both the alien and the bovine in question.

(for those unaware of the fact, most intelligent lifeforms evolve
into quadrapeds with four stomachs resembling what we call a Guernsey cow.
Humans are considered quite ugly on almost every other civilization.
Earth's evolution seems to have been upset several thousand years ago
by a  Ko'lth Oqur-in  research scientist who was using humans as
guinee pigs to develop a serum for a primitive, but intelligent,
gernsey, who was infected with a nasty virus. The virus killed off
the intelligent strain of cows,. and cross experiments accidentally
passed intelligence onto humans. a genetic vaccine had gone bad.)

which all fits in with the subject of this email:
Re: Technological advance and its consequences

Greg


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