Date: Thu, 09 Jan 92 15:54:48 -0600 From: Neil W Rickert Subject: File 1--Re: Whole Earth Review Questions Technology In Cu Digest, #4.01 Tom White writes: > Is technological innovation invariably beneficial? Do we control >new technologies or do they control us? This reminds me of the comments I occasionally have been heard to make, with tongue only very slightly in cheek: In the old days, before Xerox became a household word, everyone participating in an important meeting would be given a copy of the documentation. Attached was a check sheet. He/she would read the documentation, cross his/her name off the check sheet, and pass the documents onto the next person listed. Today, everybody has an individual copy. There is not so much of a rush to read it. Thus everyone can put off reading it until the last minute or a little later, come to the meeting, and an important issue is voted on without one participant having read it, or having the courage to admit to not having read it. +++++++++++ In the old days it was very costly to revise a draft, since the whole thing had to be redone from the start, with the possibility of new errors being introduced. As a result many letters and memos were sent out with minor errors, because it was just not worth the trouble of correcting them. Today, with word processing, editing a memo or letter is much simpler. As a result, drafts are revised ad infinitum. The total number of man (and woman) hours spend on the document may be three or more times as much as before. And the result - a few less minor typos, but no improvement in the essential meaningfulness and readability of the document. +++++++++++ To top it off, there are probably thousands of MIPS (million instructions per second) of computing power dedicated to the sole purpose of printing address labels on junk mail, much of which will finish up in land fills without having been read. Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253