From: jwtlai@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Jim W Lai)
Subject: Re: Sci-VW: Re: Virtuality and the Dominant Culture...
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1992 23:30:17 GMT
Message-ID: <1992Jan10.233017.27343@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo



In article <1992Jan10.061516.26412@milton.u.washington.edu> Daniel G Mintz 
<70322.1065@CompuServe.COM> writes:

>I have not had the time to work through all of the comments on the review
>but was interested in your comments.
> 
>What would be your solutions, action steps to protect the simple American
>culture from technocracy gone wild?

I'm probably stating what's obvious and has been said, but perhaps should be
said again.  Technology now advances faster than our legal system is able to
keep pace with.  It would seem, in general, that any action taken to limit the
effect of technology on culture would have to be based on ethics.  Each culture
produces its own set of ethics.  In my view, the problem of restraining
technology (beyond the limits afforded by the free market system and costs)
requires changing the culture itself, since that is the only long term
solution.  Of course, there's no quick way to do that either.  The situation
is further complicated in the case of new technologies for which the
applications are not fully known.

If we were to accept a thesis espoused in the movie "Terminator 2: Judgment
Day", research in any field, including the social sciences, is suspect.  My
feeling is that there is no simple solution, otherwise there would be little
to debate.