FW - more on the underlying combinatorial reasons for unemployment

1998-11-20 Thread Douglas P. Wilson
My thanks to Eva Durant, Victor Milne, and Steve Kurtz for your comments on my long message about combinatorial optimization and employment. Unfortunately your comments make it clear to me that once again I've failed to convey my message. I seem to be talking to an almost non-existant

Re: Views on Rifkin's theory?

1998-11-20 Thread Cordell, Arthur: DPP
Re-posting this as it seems not to have got through our 'fire-wall'. -- -- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Views on Rifkin's theory? Date: Thursday, November 19, 1998 2:59PM Arthur Cordell wrote, Technology is also labour empowering or enhancing.

at least five to ten additional planets would be needed

1998-11-20 Thread Jay Hanson
From: Douglas P. Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Oh, well, I'll try again. Here goes: -- The first line on my home page says "Imagine a future world in which it is easy to find a good job." Perhaps it would have captured my intentions better if it had said "Imagine a future world in which it is

Re: FW: Re: Views on Rifkin's theory

1998-11-20 Thread fran^don
At 09:39 PM 11/19/98 -0800,[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tom Walker) wrote: Pete Vincent I think it could hardly be called _Rifkin's_ theory, as it has been around an awfully long time, being discussed explicitly, for example, in Robert Theobald's 1964(?) book. I'd give it a much older pedigree than that.

Re: Views on Rifkin's theory?

1998-11-20 Thread Caspar Davis
Dear futurework and others, I am delighted that we (on the futurework list) are getting onto the issue of work, and welcome all of the thoughtful posts people have made on that subject. Also with the recognition that Theobald was writing about the issue 30 years before Rifkin, although the

Re: FW: Re: Views on Rifkin's theory

1998-11-20 Thread Caspar Davis
Thank you for this. I've never seen it before, and it sure goes to the heart of things. By the same token, farm labourers would work about ten minutes a day and factory workers about the same amount of time. That being the case, it would be simpler for everyone just to pay them not to work, as

Re: Views on Rifkin's theory

1998-11-20 Thread Victor Milne
My interest was not so much in the provenance of "Rifkin's theory"--though the quotation from Bertrand Russell was fascinating and instructive. I doubt that Rifkin would claim to be the first to argue that the net effect of technological innovation is a reduction in the number of available jobs.

Re: Theobald's Latest Message

1998-11-20 Thread Colin Stark
At 04:56 PM 11/20/98 -1000, Jay Hanson wrote: - Original Message - From: Caspar Davis [EMAIL PROTECTED] The other question is whether the upswing in energy around Y2K and funddamental change will lead to attempts of various people/organizations to centralize energy flows or whether we