I agree with Ian's thought if not his manner of putting it. It's a sort of "I got mine" attitude. Personally, I like iPods, new drugs, quieter mass transit, and so forth. As do most people, so I'm not worried about Carrol's Luddite tendencies. The political problem is not the mere fact of innovation, but who controls it and in what we are innovating. New generations of nuclear weapons, a criminal waste of human intelligence. New kinds of longer-life batteries, a wonderful thing. We get way too much of the former not because technology walks over us all by itself like Frankenstein's Monster, but because the people who call the shots about where we put our R&D money have mixed motives at best.
--- Eubulides <paraconsistent at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Charles Brown" <cbrown at michiganlegal.org>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Proposition, which I am not going to defend: A
> major, if not _the_ major
> goal of a socialist regime in any industrialized
> nation is to slow
> practically to zero the rate of innovation. Given
> basic needs,
> innovation in products or in production techniques
> is (except under
> extraordinary circumstances) destructive of human
> well-being.
>
> Carrol
>
> ^^^^^^
> CB: Sounds like a good thought. I'll defend it.
>
>
> =============
>
> Ok.
>
> The revo happens and communism is established across
> the globe.
>
> However [yes, there's always going to be an however
> :-)], several major diseases
> have no substantive cure and or mitigation
> strategies. Lots of toxic waste is
> still ruining countless numbers of ecosystems and
> food webs. You see where this
> is going?????????????
>
> The notion that innovation should stop, ever, is
> utterly reactionary and stupid.
> It's like demanding evolution to stop eons before
> the sun goes out.
>
> I suspect Carroll would get along just fine with
> William F. Buckley on this one
> :-)
>
> Ian
>
>
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>
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