🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <JMC.96Jan13205751@Steam.stanford.edu>, jmc@Steam.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) writes:
|> John Hoopes tells us to look at archeology for clues as to what
|> humanity will be like in 3000AD.  Then he goes on to make short range
|> predictions that seem completely unconnected with the "lessons of the
|> past".
|> 
|> 30 percent of American households have computers.  Europe is much
|> further behind the U.S. in personal use of computers than it normally
|> is in new technology.  My guess is that the use of computers has been
|> heavily connected with the English language and American culture.

Computer use is also male dominated.  I wonder if it represents an American
male solution to problems.

|> Those Europeans who do use English have not brought many of their fellow
|> countrymen up to speed.
|> 
|> I expect Europe to catch up.  I expect the poor countries also to
|> catch up - but more slowly.
|> 
|> Does archeology somehow tell us that the gap between rich and poor
|> will widen, or is it that most archeologists share quite contemporary
|> liberal prejudices about such matters?

I wonder the same thing.  (well, except for the "contemporary liberal
prejudices" part.)  My felling is that technology stability favors more
even distribution where change favors concentration.  I don't know what
the numbers say.


-- 
--gary forbis@u.washington.edu