Thomas:
This is a lengthy essay with many new ideas to absorb, I was fascinated and
overwhelmed. There are some very new thoughts in here and some good
interpretations of changes that we are all involved in but haven't really
had anyone explain to us. For example, these incredibly cumbersome voice
programs you get when you call a company for information in which you have
to listen to a number of menu choices and may never deal with a real human
is an attempt, according to the author, to move information that was once
analog, two people talking to each other, to digital where your responses
are immediately coded into bits and bites for more efficient storage and
retrieval - a thought I had not encountered before and which explains my
resistance to a major cultural change that new technology and business is
forcing on us. Anyway, read it, I'm going to reread it.
Quote:
But there are two important differences. Employment in agriculture fell as
employment in manufacturing was growing; employment in manufacturing fell as
employment in the service sector was growing. And in both agriculture and
manufacturing the slow pace of change made it easier for the growing sector
to absorb the labor that was being cast out of the shrinking sector. The
pace of technological change is much faster now. And there is no apparent
sector that can absorb the labor that the knowledge sector casts off or the
labor cast off by other sectors that the knowledge sector fails to absorb.
When we finally get around to asking "What comes after knowledge work?" we
have to admit that there is no answer.
But there are two important differences. Employment in agriculture fell as
employment in manufacturing was growing; employment in manufacturing fell as
employment in the service sector was growing. And in both agriculture and
manufacturing the slow pace of change made it easier for the growing sector
to absorb the labor that was being cast out of the shrinking sector. The
pace of technological change is much faster now. And there is no apparent
sector that can absorb the labor that the knowledge sector casts off or the
labor cast off by other sectors that the knowledge sector fails to absorb.
When we finally get around to asking "What comes after knowledge work?" we
have to admit that there is no answer.
Respectfully,
Thomas Lunde
-----Original Message-----
From: S. Lerner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]@dijkstra.uwaterloo.ca
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]@dijkstra.uwaterloo.ca>
Date: February 4, 1999 1:23 PM
Subject: FW A very thought-provoking paper
>Kit Taylor sent me this reference to a paper that strikes me as really
>important if we are to understand the future of work. Visit the website if
>you are interested - that's the best way to access the paper. Sally
>
>Conference paper on the technological unemployment of knowledge workers
>( The Brief Reign of the Knowledge Worker: Information Technology and
>Technological Unemployment)
> which is at:
>http://online.bcc.ctc.edu/econ/kst/BriefReign/BRwebversion.htm
>
>The author's website is http://online.bcc.ctc.edu/econ/kst/Kstpage.htm
>
>
>
>
