Re: virus: Power
Dave (spiffie@dopamine.com)
Thu, 8 Aug 1996 04:56:55 -0500 (CDT)
On Thu, 8 Aug 1996, Ken Pantheists wrote:
> >
> > No, I'm saying that our economy is changing from one based on industry to
> > one based on information. The most important commodity in the 21st
> > century will be information. It's called "Third Wave Economics". Only
> > those with the skills required to quickly make a sense of a complex world
> > will do well in the coming age. They will need to be able to leatn
> > quickly, listen well, adapt on the fly etc. This requires intense
> > training from a young age, and our current education is inadequate to say
> > the least.
>
>
> I still disagree with you on one principle. Is it not the responsibility
> of the individual to develop these skills? I don't think they can be
> successfully taught.
>
> Secondly, This Third Wave is not for everyone. What does Third wave
> mean? No more farmers? No more auto mechanics? Why should everyone learn
> the same "Third Wave" skill set?
>
While I agreed with Stephen's post for the most part, this one section
gave me pause. I don't think that anyone, including him, can deny that the
number of manual labor jobs like farming and the like are going down, and
being replaced by automated machines. Not every person in the coming
century will have an information-based job, but certainly a much higher
percentage will than do now; an inverse lower percentage will have jobs in
manual jobs. It's a trend that has been going on for a while now. Just
look at automation in car factories, or the steady reduction of farms and
farmers as more and more become bigger and run by bigger machines.
David Voegtle