employment crisis...for whom?

Saw an interesting review by Guillermo Santamaria of Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee's new book Race Against The Machine at H+ (see below). The book deals with the current unemployment problem and the changes in the economy that are causing it -- particularly the automation of so much labor.

In my comment I wrote that it must be difficult to write about the current employment crisis (or, indeed, any crisis). Naturally, we tend to interpret events from our own perspective. If developments seem to benefit our own sort of person, then the future appears dark in the short run and bright in the long. if they do not, however, then the future is uniformly horrible.

The question, of course, is whether we know who the developments in question will really benefit. Automation, for instance, is putting much of the industrial workforce out of business. But, I've heard it argued that increasingly sophisticated software is having the same effect on white collar workers. The managerial, service, and "human skills" workers may not, in the long run, be the winners they think they are.

http://hplusmagazine.com/2012/01/29/book-review-race-against-the-machines/

Sexbots?

I saw the following article a while back. It argues that soon enough we'll be able to construct robots with which we might fall in love...even marry. I suspect that this is the truth. Eventually, maybe quite soon, we'll produce something....if not robots, machines, then something biological...that could play the role of concubine.

What worries me is that men and women are already quite separate creatures. We *think* differently.  But we work to overcome our differences so that we can sex and families. And we quite like having sex and families.

But what if we don't have to do that?

http://www.livescience.com/1951-forecast-sex-marriage-robots-2050.html

Will start posting again soon...

Really I will.

Things have been a bit complicated. But, then, that's true for us all.

Putting "Day Of The Mule" on the Web

So I'm putting one of the stories from Hydra, "The Day Of The Mule," on the web for all to see.

You can see it here:  "The Day Of The Mule"

And, if you like it, you see the whole collection here: http://www.amazon.com/Hydra-ebook/dp/B0060MB2G8

Hydra -- a new collection

And a new collection on Amazon -- Hydra!

http://www.amazon.com/Hydra-ebook/dp/B0060MB2G8

transhumans and biology

People are organic. We are the product of biology. Transhumans might have the option of not being so. They might be able to decide how much human would remain in the trans-human mix.

If you were in the position to decide, how much humanity would you keep? Would you elect to sleep? Eat? Excrete?

And what of sex? It is pure pleasure, but it is also the most biological of all biological functions. 

Would you keep it?

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005JT22MG

Alas, the futurists.

Poor futurists. So few ways to be right. So many ways to be dead wrong.

I don't envy them.