If this is the (safe) limit of public criticism and "debate" in one of the
most influential U.S. newspapers regarding 'The Future' under capitalism,
we obviously still have a very long and difficult road ahead of us.
The author is correct, IMHO, regarding the prediction that "...for the next
couple of decades its going to be ugly, as the computer-rich get much
richer and the computer- poor even poorer."
However his 'futurological' prediction that "...alternative social and
economic arrangements might not seem so preposterous", ("After a few
periods of serious 21st century hardship, with IRA`S and 401(k)`s reduced
in value by half overnight"), provides important insight into the REAL
concerns of this particular author.
Indeed the whole 'raison d`etre' of Mr Anderson`s "editorial" in the New
York Times becomes clear with his final prediction, namely, that....
The great new philosophical and political schism of the 21st century will
concern computers and their status as creatures rather than machines. In
my lifetime, the sentimental regard for computers' apparent intelligence
-- their dignity -- will resemble that now accorded gorillas and chimps.
And it will not stop there.
Citing the assertion by one Ray Kurzweil - a computer 'scientist' - that by
2030 computers will begin to seem sentient - that they will "claim to be
conscious", and that by the end of the (next) century, there will no longer
be "any clear distinction between humans and computers", this
'futuroligist' informs us that he....
is certain that this astonishing new circumstance - machines that think,
machines that feel - will provoke political and religious struggles at
least as profound and ferocious as the earlier wars over Christianity,
human rights and abortion, and that..." a machine-liberationist movement
will arise!!!
In doing so, Anderson exposes the sort of intellectual vacuum and outcome
Harold Bloom wrote about in his 'Closing of the American Mind', and reveals
the underlying message behind his 'editorial'....buy my book!
