Sep 14, 2005

The four premises

Of the Good Technoutopian:

1) We are presently undergoing a (postindustrial) revolution in technology

2) In the postindustrial age, technological growth will be sustained (at least)

3) In the postindustrial age, technological growth will lead to the end of economic scarcity

4) The elimination of economic scarcity will lead to the elimination of every major social evil

Sounds good to me...

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Problem with eliminating every social evil Piotr is that without any social evil, you can have no social good. Then the balance and society as a whole will become skewed, with everyone wearing the same thing, acting the same way, etc. Think 1984. Every social nightmare is gone, the social dream becomes the nightmare.

Course, I tend to rant about doom, end of the world, etc. I could (hops) be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Ah, I dunno...I mean as long as it isn't going to happen in my lifetime, I don't care, right?

Unless the perhaps improbable event of me actually having children occurs, that is.

Piotr Konieczny said...

Bah. Pessimits. You have yet to see the light.

Note: turn the lights on...

Anonymous said...

Pessimism is the way to be. That way, any surprises that ever happen are pleasant ones.

And I like to call myself a 'realist', thank you.

Anonymous said...

Pessimism? You haven't heard pessimism, my friend.

Pessimism is me thinking that we will have a social revolution in the US, and non-believers of social justice will be sent to "liberty camps", where they will learn the artform of basketweaving with human entrails. Pleasant thought, no?

Anonymous said...

That's still kinda nice compared to, say, a world-dominating coalition of Russia, China and India. That's almost half the world's population, and quite a large chunk of land, too.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the double post, but this calls for a quote / paraphrase.

"If I don’t know everything, then you know absolutely nothing about Pessimism, except for fear!"

Guess the author and you get a cookie (or a beer).

Piotr Konieczny said...

Well, I know it is not correct (unless you made it up :>), cause Goolge points to no hits on the quote :>

I don't see any point in being pessimistic. Because:
1) it can always be worse then it is now, so you should be content for what you have
2) if it cannot get worse, it can only get better :>

Anonymous said...

Well, as I've said, I prefer the term 'realist'.

As for the quote, you're right, one word is different. That's why it's more of a paraphrase (unless I got the meaning of the word 'paraphrase' wrong).

Hint 1: kitchen

Anonymous said...

three points for being 'realist':
1) It all could be better thent it's now. So, you should be always trying to improve it.
2) If things are going better, evrything can get spoiled.
3)Optimists will stand before the wall at first...

Anonymous said...

I always thought it was "Optomists stand in front of the firing squad first" or something...

Anonymous said...

You're right, of course, it's just that my colleague Algeroth and the English language sorta aren't on speaking terms.

 
Listed on BlogShares Creative Commons License
Voice of the Prokonsul by Piotr Konieczny is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
.