Lorelei, Hey! "...clever boys..."? Some of us clever girls have been involved, and more seriously, computer scientists of both genders have worried about consequences. I think that we best honor the lacemakers who were displaced by lacemaking machines by preserving in collections the gorgeous lace they made, studying and displaying that lace, continuing to do and teach lacemaking, and noting just how far short the best machine-made lace falls when compared with the best handmade lace. At the same time, we shouldn't let nostalgia overcome us: lacemaking was sweatshop work. The ones who made the money, per usual, were the managers and owners, i.e. the lace dealers. The world seems to me a better place for lacemaking now being a nonprofit craft or hobby. Robots and AI are already taking over dangerous jobs such as bomb disposal or mine-clearing, as well as dirty and somewhat dangerous factory jobs in manufacturing. We just have to work towards equipping displaced workers to perform other meaningful work. Now I grant you that society isn't moving fast enough on that, just as it didn't at the start of the industrial revolution...
On Tue, May 22, 2018, 17:17 Lorelei Halley <[email protected]> wrote: > > ...The echoes of this issue may yet rise again. In the matter of AI, > robots, etc. I keep thinking that the clever boys who invented these > machines weren't thinking about consequences... > > - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
