This article completely ignores the huge elephant in the room that is the real force that has driven technological change throughout history, often for the worst Profit! The thought and motivation behind the productivity innovation has rarely if ever been to free up human creativity, to use all the time saved to make music or take better care of our children . In fact the trends are going in the opposite direction. We are working harder, are more stressed and insecure than ever. The driver of technology has always been to find a way to increase the profits of the corporation or capitalist. And it is usually capital that is disproportionately rewarded. Any human benefit that comes from technological change is merely a lucky and unplanned side effect. Unfortunately we are so blinded by the present system, so accustomed to our unfortunate lot in life, that we can hardly imagine a world where the benefits of technology could be consciously directed to reduce our working hours, to increase our freedom. If technology makes it easier or quicker to do something, then we are so stuck in our thinking patterns that we assume, like this article suggests, that with time-saving inventions someone must lose. But technology creates more inequality only because we say so. Because these are our rules. Because the owners of capital have made it so. That anyone would lose their jobs or that inequality should increase because of the advances in science and technology is an effect of the warped, unhealthy nature of our system and social organization, not because of technology itself. It need not be a matter of course that productivity improvements should go to the first and foremost to the rich and powerful. Must it be just an accident and afterthought that science and technology benefit society as a whole. What about the employees of the company, how about the inventors and engineers or programmers that created the technology in the first place, how about a few extra dollars for the government that provided the research dollars and infrastructure to make the advance possibl. That is not the way it works. Any benefit to anyone except those at the top is just accident and afterthought and any suggestion of doing anything differently seems beyond our imagination. I read somewhere and it bears repeating: Be realistic. Demand the impossible.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:05:39 +0000
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