[13191] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: netLibrary
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Mon Mar 20 20:24:31 2000
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:46:10 -0800
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.COM>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.OSF.4.21.0003160816550.20559-100000@warp6.cs.misu.nodak.edu>
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Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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I wouldn't be too worried about Bill Joy's article. The threats
which he perceives are real, but they are not really related.
There's a lot of stuff out there a lot more threatening than the
three things which he fears most, as well -- war, ferinstance,
which still hasn't gone away in spite of a long time trying.
The thing to do in a true futurist frenzy is to find a common
relation among the things which one fears. But "rapid self -
replication" ain't it: bunnies do that, so do humans, and so does
traffic jams caused by urban overcrowding and any number of other
ills. Joy's linkage is too general -- "If something is everything
than maybe its nothing". There always are lots of threats out
there -- it's a dangerous world -- but too great a fear of them
without more definition is just paranoia.
Not that Bill Joy is at all paranoiac: he's a visionary --
sometimes that's worse -- although Bill Joy's visions generally
have been more correct than those of most. Wrong this time
though, I think.
Jack Kessler, kessler@well.sf.ca.us
On Thu, 16 Mar 2000, Larry Greenwood L wrote:
> Speaking of human progress, has anyone read the article in
> the April 2000 issue of Wired by Bill Joy titled "Why the
> future does not need us?" It is a provocative article that
> may make you want to burn books and erase all traces of
> science and human progress.
