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Technology without thought to its use and application is like giving a child dangerous tools and objects and hoping for the best. To often technology is viewed by the creators in a vacuum to both its benefits and dangers, not only to the social structure, but the physical environment as well. This should be an active area for the SemiWiki community to bring out the best in what they create.
Technology without thought to its use and application is like giving a child dangerous tools and objects and hoping for the best. To often technology is viewed by the creators in a vacuum to both its benefits and dangers, not only to the social structure, but the physical environment as well. This should be an active area for the SemiWiki community to bring out the best in what they create.
We have to evolve to a system where everybody benefits of the automation of jobs; trying to stop this evolution can I think only delay it for a limited time. I don't agree with the comments in the articles on guaranteed basic income that it is bad for the middle class. They still assume the asymmetric employee-employer relationship as the basic mechanism for wealth redistribution. In a world with basic income for everybody there are much less constraints for everybody to be his own employer giving more power for the employee when considering taking a job, e.g. the employee-employer relationship will be less asymmetric.
I like the basic income principle, what I do see as a problem is getting there without too much 'collateral damage'. History has shown that such (r)evolutions most of the time are not going gently.
Staf, I agree with you completely, that is why I favor a negative income tax to keep people motivated. Also we need to reform education to a low cost subscription model. A very close friend and associate developed a high speed, low cost method of technical education and proved it in over ten thousand students in 35 disciplines. She and one other instructor handled up to three hundred students at a time by automating the process and just provided help to students that needed it. She also relied on students to have input on improving course work on an ongoing basis. She did this for about 750 dollars at today's prices. She also was able to reduce teaching time by two thirds. Sadly her process died with her. She wanted me to take over her business, but I wasn't in the space at the time. She did all this with no government subsidy or student loans.
In the EDA, IP and design services industries we have often seen most new job growth occur outside the USA where wages are lower, so jobs are certainly being exported from a high-cost market to a lower-cost market.
If it wasn't for the energy revolution the US would be in very, very bad shape. Not only direct jobs, but it made the US the place for any industry that uses oil and gas for feed stock anywhere in the process chain. If we don't get infrastructure out of the hands of government we will all suffer for the government has totally lost the ability to construct infrastructure at reasonable cost due to massive corruption and waste at every step of the process. Bernie Madoff/Enron accounting methods are now our standard government accounting at many levels. I hope the net changes this due to increasing transparency. Every government transaction should be posted online real time to cut corruption and waste. A few government agencies do this, but all at the state a and local level in very limited areas. Corruption is the greatest threat to our country for most great empires collapse from the inside.
