Technology moving too fast?

[scrinch]

The terms wife and girlfriend effectively require a possessive pronoun because they only exist in relation to a second party. It's not very meaningful to say, "I was sitting next to a beautiful wife." So the "my" defines the partner in the relationship rather than actual possession. However you can sit next to a beautiful woman, who can exist outside of a relation to a second party, so if you say she is your woman, that does imply possession.

Sorry. Now back to your regularly scheduled discussion...

[martyp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imoldernu The questions were posted, because most of the events that were mentioned, had already happened before most of our citizens even had a clue as to how or why they happened. The "TECHNOLOGY" that allowed them to happen occurred within the government, or private companies... long before they cme to the attention of the general public. The general public learned about them after the fact. After the fact means after the events had already cost the public when they became aware. The horse was out of the barn.

Technology always starts someplace and then it gets out. It either takes off or it doesn't. I don't see what has changed.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by timwalsh300 I'm afraid that not everyone has the intellectual horsepower to be an engineer, so how do they earn a living wage going forward? Tim

Do like the Victorians- go into service and live downstairs.

Ha

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scrinch The terms wife and girlfriend effectively require a possessive pronoun because they only exist in relation to a second party. It's not very meaningful to say, "I was sitting next to a beautiful wife." So the "my" defines the partner in the relationship rather than actual possession. However you can sit next to a beautiful woman, who can exist outside of a relation to a second party, so if you say she is your woman, that does imply possession. Sorry. Now back to your regularly scheduled discussion...

Except that at all over the world, in many different languages including very sophisticated ones like Spanish and French, my woman often means my wife, in that it implies a woman with whom you cohabit, may support, may have children with and will get seriously annoyed if some other man makes a play for her. If you doubt this, go into any working class bar in the US south and hit on a woman sitting with a guy, or perhaps the guy has gone to the bathroom-when he comes back you could catch a battle in the teeth.

Not everyone in the world is as hung up about pieces of paper as we are in America. There are two levels of knowledge- what we Americans are allowed to think, and what any observant person realizes is true. They overlap less and less every year.

Ha

[martyp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by timwalsh300 The consequence that I most often worry about is this: Traditional economic theory says that automation doesn't destroy jobs, it creates new ones (e.g. automobiles displace people in the horse business, but allow for those people to begin building or repairing cars instead). At some point, however, I wonder if the new jobs require more sophisticated skills than displaced workers are capable of developing. That time may already be upon us as highly-paid jobs for STEM workers go unfilled while the unemployment rate is 7-8% and people struggle. I'm afraid that not everyone has the intellectual horsepower to be an engineer, so how do they earn a living wage going forward? Tim

Actually, the last half of my engineering career was doing just that. We automated tasks. Laid off the lower skilled workers. Replaced them with fewer higher skilled workers. When someone else's automation efforts pushed me out of my job it just happened be retirement time for me. My remaining employees all landed on their feet in other parts of the organization.

But to answer your question . . . those displaced workers are being funneled to lower wage jobs. That is what fueled the recent wage protests at fast food restaurants in New York and other cities. Low wage employees are now adults with families rather than kids getting their first jobs.

[audreyh1]

I thought technology had moved remarkably fast in the late 20th century. And then I became more knowledgeable about US history in the 19th century and early 20th century and came to realize it was moving very fast then too. Leaps and bounds in transportation - from one-way barges to steamboats to railroads and then cars and planes. What a whirlwind it must have seemed to my grandparents and their parents! For centuries, waterways were the main transportation, then in less than a 100 years several revolutions in transportation. Wow!

[bjorn2bwild]

On a personal level my answer to this question will have little value to the next person i.e. - Elon Musk or Jaron Lanier will have a different perspective than an Amish individual or say Ted Kaczynski.
Not that we can do anything about it, the question becomes more interesting on the macro level - Is technology moving too fast for the good of mankind?
Do advanced civilizations inevitably reach some future oh sh*t moment? Like - "I assure you, the LHC can not create a self sustaining Black Hole......

[heyyou]

Wm Bernstein has written about the historical speed of tech change in Splendid Exchange.

People are not different now than they ever were. Aesop's Fables, the Talmud, Bible, Tao, Buddha, etc. still have valid lessons for modern (higher tech, but not any wiser) day to day living. The perception of currently too much of what used to be rare is enduring in, shall we say, more mature adults. Socrates wrote about young people being too lazy to be productive.

More knowledge, but the same insufficient amount of wisdom as there ever was. We have doubled our lifespan, but with no change in our behaviors, so where is the real impact from tech change?

[bUU]

While I agree that there is imperceptible fundamental change between now and a generation ago (and perhaps even slight regression), we have changed with regard to how we treat others over longer periods of consideration. Not everything has changed, and even where things changed the same words could hold (different) meaning despite the differences. But we have changed.