Re: true abundance?

From: Chris Russo (extropy@russo.org)
Date: Sat Feb 10 2001 - 10:49:18 MST


At 11:16 -0500 2/10/01, GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 1/29/01 1:18:17 PM Central Standard Time,
>altamiratexas@earthlink.net writes:
>> Another quote from THE SPIKE: "In a world mutating ever more swiftly under
>> the impact of high technology, detestable toil will be very hard to find,
>> or even invent."
>
>I sincerely hope this is true. We will have to be careful about
>accommodating the natural human (and I'm willing to bet, post-human) desire
>for structured social activity that the best of "work" provides. In a world
>of "true abundance", I expect that people will do this. Let us hope they do
>it in creative and -- as you say, Barbara, "joyful" -- ways.

It's all relative. People complain today about cushy office jobs
without at all considering that centuries earlier, their equivalent
work would have been something magnitudes more menial, more
unpleasant, and probably a hazard to their health.

If we reach a point where all of today's "menial work" is taken care
of, the new "lowest job" will be considered to be "detestable toil".

Even if we reach a point where no one has to work at all, we'll still
find that lots of people bemoan their existences. I have relatives
who don't work. Oddly enough, they never seem to be happy.

Regards,

Chris Russo

-- 
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought 
or deed, I will gladly change.  I seek the truth, which never yet 
hurt anybody.  It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance 
which does harm."
              -- Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONS, VI, 21



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