[extropy-chat] Popular Luddism

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

True enough, but when science makes one's life personally easier, it
is not called science anymore. It becomes something so embedded in the
texture of everyday life that you take it for granted without thinking
twice,
Most people do not like going to the dentist. They think it is
annoying but do not even imagine how it was a few centuries ago when
rotten teeth were literally pulled out of people's mouths without
anesthetics. We owe to science the fact that these days going to the
dentist is a tolarable experience, but sometimes we tend to forget
this.
Once when children left home to migrate to another part of the world,
you knew you would probably never see them or hear from them again.
Now they are a phone call away, and you can go see them in a few
hours. And of course, we owe this to science. We could continue for
hours...
If only everyone would see this.

On Mon, 31 May 2004 09:28:20 -0700 (PDT), Adrian Tymes
<wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:
> 
> A thought encountered this weekend, and some
> permutations thereof...
> 
> In many cases where people turn against science and
> technology in general, without applying logic (except
> maybe after the fact to try to justify it), it seems
> to be because they have encountered science mainly as
> an irritant in their lives.  It heralds change, and
> the labor needed to accomodate it, whether or not they
> understand the reason for the change (or even if there
> truly is one, in unfortunately many cases).
> 
> One wonders, then, if this could be ameliorated by
> spreading the meme of using science and technology to
> make one's life personally easier, including to
> address one's worries.