Re: The Worker / Employer Relationship
Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Mon, 04 Nov 1996 18:52:26 -0500
Michael Butler wrote:
>
> Banjo said:
> I'm reminded of the Japanese
> saying "when all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail".
>
> I say:
> With respect, the farthest back I can trace this is to Abraham
> Maslow. I'd love to get a source for its being Japanese. Do you have
> one?
>
> <snip>
>
> Banjo said:
> i'm not denying that "commerce is natural", i'm only denying that
> "commerce is all"
>
> Me:
> I'd say that "commerce is the minimum level of civility with which
> we can, or ought hope to, hold as a standard for dealing with strangers".
> Courteous commerce, not commerce shoved down anyone's throat.
> And that's sometimes a blurry thing, unfortunately (see below).
>
> But we're told the Phoenicians managed it, without even knowing the
> languages of the people they traded with (in some cases, at least).
>
> The source of that civility may be anything, including especially
> compassion. For example, the Rotarians, corny as they may seem.
>
> What an utter stranger needs to know most, however, is not
> "does this unknown person want me to have a wonderful life?" but rather
> "will this person rip me off, or kill me, or enslave me?"
>
> Or to quote Einstein (possibly apocryphally), "The most important
> question a person can ask is: 'Is the universe a friendly place?'".
>
> There's friendly-like-Mom-&-Dad, and there's friendly-like-the-nice-
> man-behind-the-candy-counter, and there's friendly-like-the-crack-
> dealer-down-the-block. Are they interchangeable? Not really. (1) may
> be better than (2), but (2) is better than (3). I think. And these
> are all generalizations, anyway.
>
> Ob Extropian comment, re: "what is enlightenment":
> I see the H. accelerans speed-mismatch issue as being one that
> could result in considerable trouble and potential mistrust.
>
> Consider how irritated some people get when they're stuck in
> traffic after just a couple coffees. Now scale that by two orders
> of magnitude. How pissed-off can someone get in a subjective
> half-hour, waiting for the non-accelerated human in front to
> notice the light has been green for 18 whole objective seconds?
>
> And how tempted to do something impolite and self-serving?
>
> Perhaps enlightenment is that set of qualities that will keep
> accelerated humans from doing such, even when sorely tempted...?
>
> MMB, at but not for OCC
SOme very good points. I know I get ticked off enough at the idiots in
this world, and I've only got a measly 160 IQ points, with a rather
sedate metabolic rate. Imagine a >H person at 1600 IQ and a speed of 500
MHz, 500 or so teraflops, etc. putting up with your average moron. I
suspect that there will have to be quite a bit of programming going on
to develop temper moderation. Although I suspect that the first option
is total emotional emasculation, just to keep Omegaman from swatting the
human fly in frustration.
Mike