Date: Thu, 09 Jan 92 15:54:48 -0600
From: Neil W Rickert <
[email protected]>
Subject: File 1--Re: Whole Earth Review Questions Technology
In Cu Digest, #4.01 Tom White writes:
> Is technological innovation invariably beneficial? Do we control
>new technologies or do they control us?
This reminds me of the comments I occasionally have been heard to
make, with tongue only very slightly in cheek:
In the old days, before Xerox became a household word, everyone
participating in an important meeting would be given a copy of the
documentation. Attached was a check sheet. He/she would read the
documentation, cross his/her name off the check sheet, and pass the
documents onto the next person listed.
Today, everybody has an individual copy. There is not so much of a
rush to read it. Thus everyone can put off reading it until the last
minute or a little later, come to the meeting, and an important issue
is voted on without one participant having read it, or having the
courage to admit to not having read it.
+++++++++++
In the old days it was very costly to revise a draft, since the whole
thing had to be redone from the start, with the possibility of new
errors being introduced. As a result many letters and memos were
sent out with minor errors, because it was just not worth the trouble
of correcting them.
Today, with word processing, editing a memo or letter is much
simpler. As a result, drafts are revised ad infinitum. The total
number of man (and woman) hours spend on the document may be three or
more times as much as before. And the result - a few less minor
typos, but no improvement in the essential meaningfulness and
readability of the document.
+++++++++++
To top it off, there are probably thousands of MIPS (million
instructions per second) of computing power dedicated to the sole
purpose of printing address labels on junk mail, much of which will
finish up in land fills without having been read.
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