Schumacher on Labor, Google

Schumacher's (see prev. post) ideas on labor are fascinating to consider as well (from Wikipedia):

It is unemployment, defined by Schumacher as the degrading saving of manpower through the inappropriate use of advanced machinery, which is the prohibitive cost which no society can afford to pay in the long run. Furthermore the unemployment caused by excessive technological progress will inevitably lead to the revolt of the unemployed.

My position has always been that labor-eliminating machinary will inevitably propel us towards a socialist welfare state. This is not something I advocate, as meaningful labor is an important and fullfilling part of any human being's life. Schumacher points out the obvious flaw in the "degrading saving of manpower".

Which brings me to something that is really bugging me. Schumacher's belief in Homo Viator ("The Human Pilgrim") asserts that humanity as a group is on a journey to discover it's ultimate aim and purpose. While this is mainly a religious question, it also points out that:

if one believes “that there are no higher obligations”, it becomes impossible to resist the appeal of Machiavellianism—“politics as the art of gaining and maintaining power so that you and your friends can order the world as they like it”

Which troubles me greatly. If humanity is truly on a journey to discover it's aim and purpose in the universe, i am very distressed that by far the largest and most prevelant organizer of human efforts is wealth. If this simple reasoning is sound, as it would seem to be, the journey of humanity towards it's true purpose is more than slightly off-track..it's been completely hijacked. So what does this have to do do with Google?

I would ask Google (if he was a person) "What higher power do you believe in? What do you see as man's destiny and purpose within creation? What are you going to do with all of this knowledge..not just about us as individuals but as humanity as a whole?" I would ask Google this because I think it's something everyone should be asked and ask of themselves.

Especially someone who happens to want to know everything about everyone for their own monetary gain.

Non-Consenual Internet

Have you ever unplugged your network cable to install illegal software? Turned off airport whilst you do something inappropriate at work? Unplugged your xBox so no one would bug you to play games with them? What if you couldn't?

In the next decade we will see total blanket coverage of most of the planet with some form of wireless internet access. Corporations & governments love for people to be online. It's more than a two way street, you know. The small amount of visibility it grants is totally negated by the full exposure you are opening yourself up to. You can screen share with another user on iChat. Where do you think that technology came from? The war on terror has already funded massive government overwatch of all forms of web traffic. No amount of encryption can truly hide what you are doing over the internet from somebody who truly wants to know. So when do we get to the point where the "Turn AIRPORT Off" button vanishes all together? And what the fuck does that mean for us?

Hopefully, surely, there will always be someway to be "off-network". However I forsee application authentication as a probable justification for insuring that practically everyone has to be online to make use of their software. Under the auspices of copyright protection we will live in a permeneant state of online-ness- this will give government and corporate systems an unprecedented level of tracking and visibility into the private lives of everyone who is chained to this machination that is ever encroaching into our lives.

The Three Culprits- E.F. Schumacher

An interesting disquisition by the inventor of Buddhist Economics, E.F. Schumacher:

For Schumacher there were three main culprits, that had all been corrosive agents in a world which had lost sight of individual responsibility and a world bound to the parameters of realism and science. These were Freud, Marx and Einstein. Freud had made perception subjective through his teaching that perception was subject to the complex interplay of the ego and the id, literally rendering it self-centered. This led inevitably to a change of attitude in human relations where self-fulfillment took precedence over the needs of others. Marx, by seeking a scapegoat in the bourgeoisie, had replaced personal responsibility with a hatred for others. His fault lay in his blaming of others for problems with society. Einstein had undermined belief in absolutes with his insistence on the relativity of everything. The application of 'relativity' in all other fields including morality, led to rejection of moral codes and responsibility.