From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Tue Jan 20 2004 - 08:07:16 EST
Ian wrote: > Honestly, there is nothing to fear from this. So long as capitalism prevails, decisions about technological change will be made by capital. Their imperative is to increase the rate of surplus value. Workers have _cause_ to be concerned about this process -- particularly when there are those who claim that all of the mental (and physical?) capacities of workers can be replaced (or surpassed?) by machines. Under capitalism, it is true, many technological innovations are stimulated by the state rather than by private capital. 20th Century examples include the computer, the Internet, radar, GPS, jets, and nuclear power. Here, again, I think working people have great cause for concern. Many of those innovations were first 'field-tested' during imperialist wars (indeed, it was R&D by the military that led to the inventions to begin with). The belief that we have nothing to fear from technological change was, quite literally, blown asunder in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Afterwards, working people were told by engineers and scientists (as well as state and corporate representatives) that we had nothing to fear from the 'peaceful' development of nuclear power. Then, as the title of the John G. Fuller book says, "We almost lost Detroit" in 1966. Then there was Three Mile Island. Then -- within the context of a different institutional setting -- there was Chernobyl. If capitalist relations still prevail and if the 'Universal Turing Machine' is developed, do you really think that it will be used only for the benefit of our species and the world we live in? Wouldn't Universal Turing Machines become soldiers, police, and scabs? What would happen to workers in this futuristic scenario? In solidarity, Jerry
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