To whom...,
Hello again from Seattle - idiot over-reaction capitol of the United States - where our now-also-retiring *deputy* police chief (who designed the "strategy" for policing the WTO protest) has assured Seattlites that 850 officers will be on the streets for Y2K (presumably to tear gas and pepper spray those citizens they missed in November).
Other than the following two paragraphs which are almost a joke, I think Andersen is on the money. He may, even in these paragraphs, be identifying a more rational current if only by mistake. Computers, if such mailing lists as this are any example, will certainly become a more potent vehicle than any we current have for transmitting maximum humanity. By this I mean that computers will convey more about us to each other than ever before. As the "Global Village" becomes more and a reality, it may be that we will become less and less tolerant of any part of the network of humanity going down or even slowing down.
Even now, capitalism absolutely depends on the near-instantaneous communication among financial institutions and large customers. Retailers like Wal-Mart find tremendous advantage in supply-chain efficiency by hooking each store into a network. Amazon.com is, in effect, betting billions of other peoples' money on the idea that super-low-inventory retailing will pay off tremendously.
While capitalists have so far been the only beneficiaries, it only makes sense that if we are to give to each according to her needs, and ask from each according to her abilities we must know - as quickly as possible - those needs and the availability of abilities to provide for them.
peace
>The great new philosophical and political schism of the 21st century
>will concern computers and their status as creatures rather than
>machines. In my lifetime, the sentimental regard for computers'
>apparent intelligence -- their dignity -- will resemble that now
>accorded gorillas and chimps. And it will not stop there. In his
>book, "The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human
>Intelligence," Ray Kurzweil, the computer scientist, quite
>convincingly predicts that around 2030 computers will begin to seem
>sentient -- that they will "claim to be conscious." And by the end of
>the century, he writes, there will no longer be "any clear
>distinction between humans and computers."
>
>I find his scenario altogether plausible. And as it unfolds, I am
>certain that this astonishing new circumstance -- machines that
>think, machines that feel -- will provoke political and religious
>struggles at least as profound and ferocious as the earlier wars over
>Christianity, human rights and abortion. A machine-liberationist
>movement will arise. And by 2100, the 21st century will have its
>Gandhi, too.