Eleanor McHugh wrote:
> On 12 Apr 2009, at 06:36, Chad Perrin wrote:
>>> (1) Technology has for centuries been at the service of capital and
>>> revenue, why should it not be capabale of becoming at the service of
>>> nature, ressource management, environement control, ed altri?
>>
>> In a free market economy, technology will serve whatever is needed, when
>> it's needed.  Sadly, we do not live within anything like a real free
>> market economy.
>
> Alas all too true. If advocates of green concerns really want to 
> minimise the environmental impact of humanity their best bet would be 
> to campaign for the complete liberation of global markets.
>
>>> Si tu veux construire un bateau ...
>>> Ne rassemble pas des hommes pour aller chercher du bois, prñÑarer des
>>> outils, rñÑartir les tãÄhes, allñÈer le travailmais enseigne aux
>>> gens la nostalgie de lÃÊnfini de la mer.
>>>
>>> If you want to build a ship, donÃÕ herd people together to collect
>>> wood and donÃÕ assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to
>>> long for the endless immensity of the sea.
>>
>> . . . and that quote is ideally suited to my comment about free market
>> economies, above.
>
> Indeed :)
>
>
> Ellie
>
> Eleanor McHugh
> Games With Brains
> http://slides.games-with-brains.net
> ----
> raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason
>
>
>
>
Free market idealism...ah, yes. In the USA, and, as a consequence, in 
world in general, we are presently enjoying the rewards of market left 
entirely TOO free. Wild pigs with the social morality of your average 
two year old took over, uprooted a lot of the garden and many of the 
fruit trees, and as a result many of us are more than a bit worried 
about how we're going to feed ourselves in the coming months.

I'm sad, Eleanor, since this is the first time anything you've posted 
has evidenced anything but keen intelligence. Ever study 
economics...with an emphasis on data, rather than mere theory? I suggest 
the investment of some time in that endeavor. Free market idealism is a 
lovely thing, but the real world is considerably more complex than such 
a simplistic representation as that. I'm puzzled that you missed this.

I would have thought that your superb knowledge of both software design 
concepts and the messiness of the working out of those concepts in the 
real world might have given you a large hint about all this.

Longing for the sea gets no boats built at all. Grounding that longing 
in cooperative effort, governed by a measured degree of altruism, just 
might.

"In a free market economy, technology will serve whatever is needed, 
when it's needed."

Not if the technology needed requires massive investment with hope of 
rapid profit. For that sort of thing, history tends to show government 
gets the job far quicker and better. The free market didn't defeat the 
Nazis, or invent nuclear technology, and a great deal of the launch of 
modern cybernetics was also government sponsored.

Time to come out of orbit and get to work. Fairy tales are for children.

t.

-- 

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Tom Cloyd, MS MA, LMHC - Private practice Psychotherapist
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