Title: Mcgowanjm Wire 2012 Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Feb 26, 2012 Author:Various Post Date:2012-02-26 09:15:13 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:1474552 Comments:2390
we standardly assume that technology solves all problems. I concluded [ in the No Way Out? paper ] that this usually implicit assumption should be tossed out... Amy Jaffe explicitly stated the assumption in an interview on the PBS Newshour. Well, you know, we, in the American public, we are a big believer that there's a science and technology solution to everything — everything. So — and it was really amazing that the industry — we were sort of running out of oil onshore, and the industry was able to go out to the depths of the earth, under the sea, and keep us driving around in our cars. So, to sit here night after night and watch all these scientists unable to close a simple pipeline, even though it's a very complex engineering problem, as a layperson, when you sit here and watch the oil just spewing out of this pipeline... It's just this horror movie, like we cannot believe that there isn't a technology to close this pipeline. And we, as Americans, believe there's a technological solution to everything. And the idea that we're going to have to wait until August for the technological solution, I think it's just got people just gripped in terror. Amy is so terrified by the prospect that technology doesn't solve all problems that she starts repeating herself.
The alert reader will note that I wrote (back in early 2010) that the Assumption of Technological Progress should be tossed out. That usage was disingenuous. I would never use the word "should" today because my view, then and now, is that technological optimism is built right into Homo sapiens. Perhaps I was offering a fig leaf of hope, but I don't do that anymore. I am far more apt to write text like this, which appeared in my post Techno-Optimists Running Wild!
Human love for technology is second only to our love of money. If humans can replace thousands of fellow humans with some machinery which does the same thing those inferior humans were doing, they'll make that "positive" choice in a heartbeat. More money and machines too? You can't beat that!
Let's face it, technology is the only thing Homo sapiens is good at. The historical record makes it entirely clear that humans can't govern themselves, don't understand themselves, and can't change their own fundamental behaviors. For example, they can't just say No when given the opportunity to apply some technology and destroy the lives of all those fellow (albeit inferior) humans just mentioned. Technology is the solution to all problems, even when a problem does not exist, or the technology itself creates far more problems than it solves. Technology Über Alles."
Slaughter In Iraq As 145 Are Killed And 379 More Are Wounded Margaret Griffis
July 22, 2012 - A second day of intensified attacks left at least 145 Iraqis Killed and 379 more wounded. The attacks, mostly bombings, seemed to focus on security personnel in Sunni-dominated areas. Several more bombs were defused, while others exploded without leaving casualties. A large number of attacks and casualties always leads to conflicting figures as separate authorities report different numbers. Also, more casualties are expected in at least Taji where bombs demolished several residential buildings...
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A Note on how even and especially progressive media (USSAMSM simple ignores it;) is Confused about Insurgent Tactics.....
Mainly because it has Internalized the USSA MSM message.
Today there's a lot fewer USSA MErcs patrolling IRaq than there were three days ago.
