I am not a luddite by any means, and I think that all these comparisons fall short. Automating physical work has a different effect on our brain than automating intellectual work. Or maybe I'm fooling myself, and it's just our turn as worker to get the industrial revolution treatment.
replyThere are lots of prior examples of automating intellectual work, though -- calculators (rather than doing the math yourself), Google search (rather than looking through library catalogues yourself), Word processors/typewriters (rather than writing by hand), heck, even writing (rather than simply remembering things), which Plato railed against.
replyTrue, I guess at every step it’s affecting a growingly larger part of the intellectual population.
I remember Umberto Eco only half-jokingly ranting in the early 2000 against the speed and ease with which suddenly everyone could match his rare bibliophile abilities and his portentous memory.
I guess we’re all getting to feel the same way now, with the difference that the industrial/financial complex built on this new revolution feels like the most disenfranchising ever so far.
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