[extropy-chat] >H pleasure (was: MOVIE: "The Singularity")

[Emlyn]

On 28/09/05, Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:
> Which is not to say it won't be a problem.  I recall Natasha's
> description, from several years ago, of telepathic intimacy.  Things
> like that, while not absolute, could well prov to be powerful enough
> addictions to essentially cause many to vegetate for long enough
> periods as to cause near-term resource shortages.  (Even a
> self-replicating system needs a certain minimum resource base to
> survive, especially if a large part of itself has ceased
> self-replicating or doing any other productive labor yet still requires
> support.)

Some days, I have great trouble working out how that differs from
right now. Currently, there seem to be more than enough raw resources
to go around, with very little of the population working on anything
related to producing them (eg: 1% of workers are agricultural workers
in the US, 10% I think are in manufacturing, remembering from "Rise of
the Creative Class" by Richard Florida).

Whereas about 60% are service industry, about 30% are creative class
(I think, my numbers might be out, for instance that all adds up to
101%!)

Might we not view large chunks of the service industry and the
creative class workers as producing nothing tangible? I do wonder
whether much of modern work is the market inventing make-work to keep
the money flowing.

How are these workers, perhaps the *majority* of workers (including
myself), distinguishable from lotus eaters from the outside?

Not as happy, perhaps.

--
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com   * blogs * music * software *