[ExI] What's in a transhumanist name? (was: YES! to Transhumanism)

[Emlyn]

2009/1/7 BillK <pharos at gmail.com>:
> On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 9:29 PM, Bryan Bishop  wrote:
> <snip>
>> Whatever happened to the hobbyist machinist, anyway?
>>
> They died out between your grandad's generation and your dad's
> generation. After car engines became too complex to strip down and
> rebuild in a weekend. When things became 'black boxes' with no
> serviceable parts inside. 'Tinkerers' have nearly died out.
>
> Think now. When your toaster breaks down what do you do?
> You either,
> 1)  throw it away and buy another,  or,
> 2) take it round to grandad, who disappears into his shed for an hour
> or two, then returns it to you, working perfectly and shining so you
> can see your face in it.
>
> But grandad won't be around much longer.
>
>
> BillK

I work with one of those grandads. Ex tv repairman. Finds burnt out
components on circuit boards by smell (seriously). Personally I can
barely find where the oil goes in my car, so those kinds of skills
humble me.

Fairly closely related to what Bill is saying above, this paper:
http://c4ss.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/industrialpolicycarson0109.pdf

Some of it feels a bit emotive, but it seems to have a lot of
footnotes, so maybe it's all well supported? Great reading though,
made me want to go and find out how those, you know, tool thingies
work.

-- 
Emlyn

http://emlyntech.wordpress.com - coding related
http://point7.wordpress.com - downshifting and ranting
(http://emlynoregan.com is currently down, see
http://point7.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/scarcity-mode-emlynoregancom-is-down/)