Many people treat technology like magic even in the West. How does a cell phone work? Dunno. Where does it come from? The store. Civilization depends on the knowledge of a small fraction of the world’s 7.5 billion population. The know-how to make pharmaceuticals, complex devices, aircraft, computers, industrial chemicals from scratch is probably confined to a few million people concentrated in North America, Europe, Russia and North Asia. The rest of us are end users.
Many of these wonderful technical and medical devices were invented in Israel.
They are now developing a product that can substitute synthetic skin for burn victims.
How many of Obamas Musselmen Brotherhood have ever invented anything?
Don’t include suicide bombers.
Actually the scary part is how dumb the smart people are. I write software for a living and most of the people I’ve ever worked with are completely stupid myself excluded. It’s completely amazing that any of this stuff works. Mind you I’ve only worked on software that did minor things like process tax returns for the government and managing inmates in prison etc.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
Very true, I love telling hippies that using GPS on their phones is helping the “military industrial complex” Of course then I have to explain what GPS is…..
“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
It has always been this way.
If the economic markets collapse, and or war comes to town, everyone in it is a survivalist, some much better than others. Most of those that are better survivalists won’t be able to build a Rocket Ship from scratch, many of those that can build a rocket will starve to death.
Always everywhere there are the healthy useless eaters that can’t support themselves when times are either good or bad.
The moral of the story? No idea, but if there is one it’s to be as versatile and knowledgeable as you can be, then work very hard at improving yourself with multiple skillsets.
I describe myself as a failed 60’s hippie, because I did not succeed at dropping out “completely” and living off my own land (which seemed to be a nice idea at the time). I re-discovered very early that even a person who thinks he has a rounded set of practical and theoretical skills can’t do “everything” any more, if indeed that has ever been true since we stopped being hunter/gatherers. Just try being a shepherd and making your own clothes, or of dosing your sick children with traditional herbal remedies.
The other lesson to learn is that it is as hard to earn (say) the $10,000 irreducibly necessary amount of cash as it is to have a proper job or career, and earn lots more, so one might as well do the latter.
A modern, civilized society appears pretty attractive as soon as it may be at risk.
Tony.
But cellphones are magic.
You just pay the Gods,press in the incantation and you get to hear disembodied voices..
Just punch in the numbers…
Just put in the card,press in the numbers..money, goods..
Turn the tap..clean potable water..
Plug in the device, electricity comes from the wall outlet.
Flush..it all goes away..
Phone 911, help will appear…
Civilization is wonderful.
We live as gods compared to our forefathers.
However civilization has a cost, just as rights come with responsibilities.
There is no such thing as freedom without consequences.
Choosing to be ignorant of the technology that provides our luxurious lifestyles, means you get to pay a whole lot more than those who make that effort.
As a skilled tradesman I say suit yourself, but I will ignore complaints about the bill I give you.
However the difference between technology and laws cannot be emphasized enough as we have been enslaved by “lawmakers’ enriching themselves by complicating law beyond all reason.
Oh wait..Microsoft.
A song to end this year with; Flakes by Frank Zappa.
Overheard at the International Climate Summit held in Morocco recently. The “denier” press was barred … but one of their seminars was captured by camera phone…
V: Tell me… what do you do with witches (deniers)?
P3: Burn’em! Burn them up! (burn burn burn)
V: What do you burn apart from witches (deniers)?
P1: More witches (deniers)!
(pause)
P3: Wood!
V: So, why do witches (deniers) burn?
(long pause)
P2: Cuz they’re made of… wood?
V: Gooood.
(crowd congratulates P2)
V: So, how do we tell if she is made of wood?
P1: Build a bridge out of her!
V: Ahh, but can you not also make bridges out of stone?
P1: Oh yeah…
V: Does wood sink in water?
P1: No
P3: No. It floats!
P1: Let’s throw her into the bog! (yeah yeah ya!)
V: What also floats in water?
P1: Bread
P3: Apples
P2: Very small rocks
(V looks annoyed)
P1: Cider
P3: Grape gravy
P1: Cherries
P3: Mud
King: A Duck!
(all look and stare at king)
V: Exactly! So, logically…
P1(thinking): If she ways the same as a duck… she’s made of wood!
V: And therefore,
(pause & think)
P3: A witch (denier)! (P1: a witch)(P2: a witch)(all: a witch!)
Whenever I asked my Mother or Father how they survived during the depression they did not make a big deal of it. My Dad look at me and said we did what he had to do. The man farmed with horses until 1946.
My Mother shrugged and said nobody went hungry. They were another farm family who knew how to survive. They broke land and farmed it very successfully.
My experience has been that I know enough of what they did to appreciate what they achieved but I will never kid myself in thinking that I really knew what they went through. The difference today is that the vast majority of people are totally divorced from the land.
I’m not quite as pessimistic about the ability to recreate technology in NA and Asia (possibly Europe). What he’s talking about is applied science like medicine, pharmaceuticals, engines, electricity, electronics. Applied science knowledge, manuals and manufacturing techniques are not really found in universities. They’re in industry. Today every procedure and process is compiled and easily accessed in standard operating procedures, production manuals, etc.
Preferably you would want to recruit tradespeople and labourers to rebuild but you could make do with others. Sure it may be frustrating to put up with the whining and hissy fits of the poorly educated but I suspect even the dullards from social sciences and humanities could be trained by applied science survivors to complete step by step tasks. Except HR staff and possibly economists – they’re hopeless when it comes to learning and understand hands on, technical processes.
The next Depression will be hardest on the people in the cities who can’t feed themselves, just like the last one was. Cities are evolving as magnets for stupidity, like moths to a flame. At some point the stupidity reaches critical mass and the city implodes into chaos.
British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke formulated three adages that are known as Clarke’s three laws, of which the third law is the best known and most widely cited:
1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
“almost always opposed by all right-thinking people.”
always opposed by LEFT-thinking people.
Fixed that for you.
no matter what u r gonna say i find this awesome and this kind of effort should be applauded by more and more people
“…Russia and North Asia”
Hugh? Really?
It would be naive to dismiss the accomplishments of the Indians and other South Asians.
To quote Arthur C. Clark… “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
‘Twas ever thus.
“Civilization depends on the knowledge of a small fraction of the world’s 7.5 billion population.”
I’m not certain what is intended by that statement and I find it disturbing and somewhat depressing in the technological context that it’s used. Is a civilized society defined by its technology or is it defined by its behavior and by its culture of which technology is only a part.
And “magic” is an archaic term. This is not the middle ages. Today, “Science” (capitol S) is the substitute term. People don’t think their i-phone is magic. They think that “scientists” can explain it …. can explain everything.
Apparently it would be even more naive to believe that basic Geography is common knowledge.
a well shaped women , a well cooked meal , a morning bird song are all magic and cannot be explained by anyone. So why try.
Sadly, Arthur C. Clark was simply a British science fiction writer
In other words, he made up stuff for a living, providing delightful entertainment for many people.
So, his credentials for making statements about scientists and technology were zero.
Ad hominem attacks are not valid arguments. Wisdom stands on it’s own regardless of who says it. …and speaking of credentials, what have you published that received critical acclaim and awards for decades, to give you qualifications to judge Clark’s wisdom?
Add “scientific and technological specialization” to the ever-growing list of things that SDA gripes about (or perhaps this falls under the category of “experts”, which is something that SDA already regularly gripes about?.
“How to cellphones work?” How many people here can answer that question to a high level of technical specificity, vs some variation of “I dunno, not really”? How many individuals with the know-how to make pharmaceuticals also have the know-how to build aircrafts?
Eli >
“….list of things that SDA gripes about”
Careful, Freudian Projection is one of the first indicators that your a Liberal Progressive. Seriously that is not something you’ll want people to identify you as in years to come.
Correction: Clark is credited with the idea of satellite communication technolgy, not merely a writer of entertaining fiction. Taking cheap shots at those who invented concepts is not an argument.
In our society “right-thinking people” tend to adhere to a politically left canon which they do not think to question or analyze but the term right-thinking means what is generally accepted or at least not openly challenged in polite company.
@Gary D.:
Couldn’t disagree with more with your glib comment. Clearly you know little about his writing.
Arthur C. Clarke (always must add middle initial) is one of the giants of Science Fiction (note: not fantasy fiction, passed off as science fiction which is so common today). By education, he was an astronomer. His “Tales from the White Hart”, short stories written in the 50s are classic tongue in cheek science based stories though largely forgotten today. He truly was an “Idea” man and a philosopher as well.
Having said this, I agree, not everything he ever wrote should be taken as wisdom. He was, after all, a flawed human just like the rest of us. But give the man his well deserved recognition.
Some of his books for you:
The Deep Range
Childhood’s End
The City and the Stars
Rendezvous with Rama
I’ve always thought that “Against the Fall of Night” was one of his best. Humanity achieves everything that we’ve ever dreamed of. And gets bored. What would life be like a couple of hundred thousand years later? A mind-blower for me as a teen.
‘Hovercraft is full of eels’… Monty Python?
All familiar titles. When I was a kid I read Analog magazine, Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, Dick… while my contemporaries read comic books and sports mags. Most smart kids learned critical thinking and other skills from reading what Heinlein called Speculative Fiction.