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Mon Feb  1 10:18:07 1982
Technology and Humanity
       Date: 31 January 1982 03:39-EST
       From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE MIT-MC AT>
       Subject: Technologists and Humanists

       If you burned all the art, people would be miserable but alive.

       If you burned all the technology, about 75% of the population
       would starve.

       Which should we do?


       (Maybe neither?)

My point was not that one is independant of the other, but that
they are both facets of the same jewel.  If you burned all the art,
would you include well-designed machinery, or elegant computer programs?
If you burned all the technology, would you destroy Moog synthesizers,
or synthetic-fibre paintbrushes?  Art can be functional, as technology
can be artistic.  Is writing a novel on a word-processor an act of
artistry or technology?  --Tom

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