by John Galt » Fri Mar 21, 2014 1:54 pm
the exponent of 0.00007 is a small number, but that doesn't mean it's a flat scale. technology progressed, even in the dark ages. there'd always be something to make humans more efficient. true, in recent history it has much higher turnover; 100 years ago it was a good job to be a telegrapher. overnight the profession was obliterated by technology. but i just think it's rather silly to think that this is a novel issue. look at the french, how did they address it (at least in part)? by revolting against technology to keep their quaint little farms, whereas the breadbasket of the world uses lots of modern technology to the point where a fraction of a percent of people can feed everybody else. we are free to pursue learning elsewhere until eventually we will reach the singularity (technological progress has exponentially reached such a height that it is virtually instantaneous)
Americans learn only from catastrophe and not from experience. -- Theodore Roosevelt
My life has become a single, ongoing revelation that I haven’t been cynical enough.