Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 04:11:52 +0100
From: "Dave Hall" <davehall@dbn.lia.net>
Subject: RE: virus: RE:The Quest and I and We
>>Boy Soldiers, who made shit happen for the Empire/Reich/Congress so that
"Dave Hall" <davehall@dbn.lia.net> wrote:
>I guess the caution of African-English sarcasm went unnoticed? Not to
worry
>.. that's the problem with email .. one has no choice but to make whatever
>assumptions one can.
Only too true. I did see the sarcasm warning, though.. I just commented
on the fact that it seems to be very easy to be sarcastic toward science
in this day and age. Most of your comments would have slipped by unnoticed
as quite acceptable, even without the sarcasm warning.. Most of my post was
not aimed directly at you, just at the seemingly rapidly growing group
of people who thinks modern science is "evil" somehow. Like the
"Envirofundies"
that currently are part of another thread here..
>There's a chap who went by the name of Buckminster Fuller who says
>everything I could ever want to say about managing technology responsibly,
>and a lot more interestingly in a short book called "Grunch of Giantsd". I
>strongly urge anyone who lives on this planet to read it anyway. It's about
>60 pages printed. Just as Fuller predcited in 1981, the ramp up in
military
>spending caused a world awash in overly smart kick-ass weapons, and
>regardless of how it's driving the current technological wave, which is a
>good thing IMO, it's not possible to simply disregard the serious problems
>that are occuring out there. Here's the link .. it's a highly recommeded
>read that costs nothing except an hour or two of your time:
>http://www.bfi.org/grunchofgiants2.html
Thanks for the link to the Buckminster Fuller Institute.. lots of interesting reading. I'll start on it as soon as I get some spare time.
>FWIW I'll do some more ranting, non-sarcastic variety: I'm technophobic in
>the sense that we've got a huge over-supply of weaponary technology on this
>planet and think it's one of things people don't seem to ever bother about
>until a stay buillet changes your life forever, taking out a friend, a
>family member or yourself. It happens, every second of the day .. to "other
>people".
I completely agree that science aimed at making better weapons instead of
making
life better for everyone should be kept at a minimum (preferrably nothing).
The
impression I got from the posting I responded to was that you accused _all_
modern
science of being weaponary, though. Especially since you started ranting
about
calculus, of all things. I'm curious: Was it just sarcasm, or do you really
consider calculus "weaponary science" and thus "evil"?
-Engan