no third solution » Archive
Dog Blogging
Rumor learned a new trick today, but because I shot this on my cell phone and forgot to edit the orientation, it comes out sideways here, so, either tilt your head or tilt your monitor, or just bear with me. Unfortunately, now she thinks the “Easy Button” is a dog-treat dispenser. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Dog Blogging
Why I’m Glad Player Piano is a Work of Fiction
A while back, I read Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano, and had honestly meant to write a critique/review of the novel. Time passed, and the draft got lost along the way somewhere. The idea was revived when I was thinking last night about how all of our productivity is wasted. My first impression was that Piano is vaguely reminiscent of Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Vaguely. Vonnegut paints a dystopian picture of a future where machines handle nearly every task known to man, which sounds pretty nice, at first. The kicker is that if you’re not smart enough (and the machines will determine who is smart and who not), you might be lucky to be able to service the machines – so long as there isn’t a machine for that, yet – and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Literature, Potpourri
All of Our Productivity is Wasted
There is some evidence that we’re making progress: working less, living longer, getting fatter. All this, to an extent and in certain context, appears true. I certainly won’t argue that the average life in 1870 was better than it is now (although none of us are really qualified to make that determination), and I think you really (and I mean really) have to go out on a limb to say that life was better in 1970 than it was in 2007. Reality just doesn’t play out that way. Most things we buy are better than they were then, many things we buy didn’t even exist a decade or so ago. All the stuff we have is better, or we have more of it. I often find … Read entire article »
Filed under: Agora!, Anarchy!, Blog Reactions, Government is Slavery, ponderings