I gona post some comments on Allan's post about Robotics .Yeah still Robotics ,you may all call it whacko ,but as far as i think ,while you all are debating what communism has learnt us from the past ,i am thinking how communism can look like in the future.
While computers and robots can greatly enhance our lives, I don't think we should ever relinquish responsibility and control to them. We should remember that WE are the intelligent race on the planet, and continue with that burden--and that reward.
Well i don't think we are the intelligent race on this planet..Agreed ,"Most" intelligent yes ,but since intelligence is relative i don't wan't to call ourselfs intelligent.
I think we have to give them responsebility's & control if they could come more intelligent than us.In general i think it's better to give a job to a computer if he can do it better than you.like with a calculator, it can eventualy calcullate bmore consistenly than us, and certainly faster.
and:
Also, what I think Lefty was trying to say (and I agree with him) is that the ideal communism--the utopia version--cannot work, at least on any large scale, because humans BY NATURE are individuals more than they are social animals. It is the way we were made (or evolved), and our individual desires are what drive us, not any concern for people we do not know (unless of course there is a disaster).
but if we can produce computer's that are perfect in it's posibillety to rule ,why wouldn we let them rule us (we humans that are not perfect ,and never will be)
eventually i'm certain that computer's never will use their power badly.It's simple ,a computer has no wil.and it doesn't need a will to work ,only a command. (that can be endless)
And it doesn't need a will to be intelligent.That way ,a computer can only do for what it's constructed to do.Even if a Macintosh would be extremely smart and dangerous ,it still wouldn have an arm to hold a gun.
it's only will is the command whe give him ,and that is serve us.
I'll tell you more about the architecture of Artificial intelligence later.
And then there's another maxim--absolute power corrupts absolutely. Under capitalism, MILLIONS of different parts of the economy are controlled by individuals, often in competition or else either unrelated or in a cooperative relation (like a manufacturer and a parts supplier). Concentrating the entire economy into the hands of one entity (government--someone has to lead) will attract the power-seekers to those positions far more than it does now. At least now the heads of different economic entities keep each other in check--UNITED, and things could be a lot worse for those who have no power. Don't kid yourself, there will ALWAYS be people who have more power than others, and will seek to increase their power over others--simply because others don't want it, or at least not badly enough--and so the best "equalizer" to that is to let individuals be free, in fact have more liberty than they do now.
in a robotics communism the whole economy would be controled by a Primery industry Controller. (And a Backup industry controller (for you NT'rs))
That can be better.eventually a capitalist industry led's to a LOT of waste.If something doesn't sell ,it is thrown away ,sometimes just to keep prices high.That is so utterly a waist.a capitalist industry is rarely builded in a constructive coörparation with eachother.Manufacturing plants can be constructed on strange places with it's goal in mind.like for example country's with low labor costs.That way ,there is more oil used to transport the products.I hope you can understand that that way in a Capitalist industry a lot of recources go lost because the low coorparation of the industry itself.in a communism where the whole industry is constructed and owned by one body ,that sort of waiste's can more be eliminated.
Also with over-production.In a communism it can be tottaly known how much of a specific good must be constructed.that way it's easier to fight overproduction.
If you agree with me that a Artificial Intelligence will never be dangerous ,then you understand why a simple computer controling the entire industry would be better than a human controlling the industry.
The US is not perfectly capitalist either, BTW. Our capitalism is in fact just as corrupted from the ideal as the Soviets were from Communism. In true capitalism, government would have NO authority to either interfere with OR benefit certain corporations (so long as they do not engage in violence or fraud)--unlike now, where certain corporate interests are propped up by government force, through bought politicians. In a truly free, capitalist society, politicians wouldn't HAVE the influence to sell them, since their power would be minimalized (by something like the US Constitution, which is largely ignored by the US government these days). Corporations would have to sink or swim on their own merits: a cheaper source of energy is developed by a corporation, then too bad for the oil company, to give one example. Not so now, but it could be, if capitalism were done RIGHT.
Don't praise capitalism too much ,especialy in America.a lot of irreplaceble stuff is financially interresting too ,like for example the rain forest ,drugs ,guns ,precious animals... .Why do you think that much hand gun's are sold in America? America has a big gun industry ,where a lot of people work.
Eventualy ,alternative energy could have been invented and used on a bigger scale much earlier ,wasn't it for the power of the oil industry.bush himself is paid by a lot of polluting industry's ,like oil.that is something that slowens the reforms to a cleaner industry.and i think with that it's possible that America will once come a "corparete republic".hell ,it's one right now.
The power in capitalism isn't balanced at all.there are reasons why there is so much talk over pollution ,the ozon layer ,extinction of animals ,organized crime ,... .
There is also the problem of stress ,wich go's sometimes by strange ways in our social culture.We may not be very caring if somebody commit's suicide.A lot of the suicide cases i call a product of capitalism too. (though not all)
the difference with capitalism is that it theoreticly never can be perfect ,whil communism can be.Technological advancement can make maybe communism a perfect system.
Now back to robotics
.if you wan't it or not ,robotics is something that almost surtenly WILL HAPPEN.Today our technilogical reasearch goes mostly to genetic resaerch and informatics resaerch.The future will be the product of that.in that saes sence i guess our genepoel will a lot be changed through hundred years from now.Especially in a capitalist enviroment ,a Robotics industry can grow fast ,though in capitalism it has styupid after effect.Every sort of labor will eventually with the appropiate technolegy be cheaper by robots then humans.On the workfloor ,the computer will render the human ultimatly obsolete.not directly every sort od labor ,but graduatly it will.even today work in a factory is cheaper by robots than a western worker.And thus you see already a lot of big company's constructing robotics plants.If it is financialy interresting in a capitalist enviroment ,it will be done ,and every company that doesn't will be out competed by such plant's. (with higher productivety + lower costs)
But (and i stated this already in another post) a capitalist sytem is reliant on employement for smooth running.As thus capitalism and robotics are contradictionary.The more of the economy that is roboticizd ,the badder for the economy.eventualy it comes down to a lot of people become poor (by having now employement) ,but with an increasing production and a soaring demand ,eventually even the boses do not benifit.
in a communism it's perfect.To the people that have no employement you give the products that are already produced in mass ,for free.that way ,you can have a robotics revolution till the end ,and the eventual result is that nobody has to work ,everything is in mass and free.
(every family a t.v. for free ,every person a bike for free ,...)
this you can only achieve in a communist system.
that is for part one of my reply
. The era of achieving political change in Western liberal democracies through "dancing in the streets" is long gone.
