Luddites

I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people--Newton

Chris seems to have had some Amazon packages stolen off the porch.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016, only 37% of white high school graduates tested as college-ready, but colleges admitted 70% of them. Roughly 17% of black high school graduates tested as college-ready, but colleges admitted 58% of them. 

John Constable of the Global Warming Policy Forum points out that although the UK’s economy has almost trebled in size since 1970, and its population is up by 20 percent, total primary inland energy consumption has actually fallen by almost 10 percent. Much of that decline has happened in recent years. (The other side to that stat is that Britain might be less self-sufficient, importing more products where the energy has already gone into them.)

"Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses" is a study conducted by Professors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. They found that 45% of 2,300 students at 24 colleges showed no significant improvement in "critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing by the end of their sophomore years."

Wallison on the decline of the Separation of Powers:"

"... in and after the New Deal Congress began to abandon its role as the principal lawmaker for the nation, relying increasingly on the president for policy direction. Eventually, Congress found that it did not have to make the most important and controversial decisions for society — decisions that endangered the members’ re-election. Instead, it was easier to set goals for administrative agencies, requiring them to ensure things like clean air or water, without taking the necessary step of describing who was to get the benefits and who was to bear the costs.  

Thus, at bottom, the uncomfortable fact is that Congress of its own volition has given the agencies of the administrative state the power to make the major policy decisions that Congress itself should be making."

Here is a list of some other actual college courses that have been taught at U.S. colleges in recent years: "What If Harry Potter Is Real?" "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame," "Philosophy and Star Trek," "Learning from YouTube," "How To Watch Television," and "Oh, Look, a Chicken!" 

At least three private companies have fallen victim to ‘deep fake’ audio fraud. In each case, a computerized voice clone of the company CEO “called a senior financial officer to request an urgent money transfer.”


                                Luddites



From Carl Benedikt Frey and Ebrahim Rahbari:

….historically, resistance to new technologies that threaten people’s jobs and skills have been the norm rather than the exception (Citi 2019, Frey 2019). The Luddite risings, which have been the focus of most popular commentary, were merely part of numerous machinery riots in Britain, France, Germany, and China. For example, as the Parisian crowds stormed the Bastille at the dawn of the French Revolution, woollen workers in Saint-Sever destroyed all the machines that had been used there (Horn 2009). What’s more, in the 17th century, a host of European cities banned automatic looms fearing social unrest.  Economic historians have also argued that one reason for China’s late industrialisation is that resistance to labour-replacing technologies persisted even longer there. In the late 19th century, for example, imported sewing machines were smashed by local workers (Desment et al. 2018). As Frey (2019) points out, British governments were actually the first to side with inventors rather than rioting workers, which might explain why Britain was the first country to industrialise.

And the resistance continues. Frey and Rahbari also point out a 2017 Pew Research survey that found 85 percent of US respondents favored policies to restrict the use of machines beyond hazardous work. 

(Underlying all this may be an almost comic misunderstanding of our relationship with Nature and the astonishing progress we have made. Some of these people are childlike in their naiveté.)

Brent Swanson highlights a piece in The Atlantic which asked: “If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?” And a Rutgers professor gave this gem of an answer: 

The invention of agriculture. Imagine: far less environmental degradation and income inequality, a shorter workday for all, a varied diet and possibly better health outcomes for certain communities, and a profound confidence that the future would provide. A world without industrial agriculture would pretty much be the Eden of the Bible. Hunter-gatherer life isn’t sounding so bad.

(Agriculture as an enemy! Eden. Hunter-gathering doesn't sound so bad. And, I suppose, burnt offerings would be a lot cheaper as health insurance.)

I like agriculture and how it helped lead to our modern civilization. Of course, innovation-generating market capitalism, liberalism, gave a big boost, as this chart shows: