I finished reading Oryx and Crake last night. It was good. I had hoped for more and felt that the story didn't ultimately quite fulfill it's promise, but it was still a good read.
It had one idea that I'd never thought of before. It suggested that if human civilization collapsed, it would be much more difficult for humans to ever fully reconstruct it because all of the easily accessible metals have been mined. To get at metal ores now requires already having a technology. The implication was that the bronze age couldn't happen again and without a bronze age, no more advanced technology was likely. In thinking about it, I believe that's only true in the 'medium term'. In the short term, landfills and other leavings of the current society would surely be available to be recycled. In the long term, geology will eventually recycle the whole surface of the earth resulting in new deposits of minerals being created and exposed. Iron ore is predominantly mined from strata that were created during the initial switch from anaerobic to aerobic conditions on the earth, which it is true may never repeat, but there are other forms of iron ore that would appear again on the geologic time scale. In the medium term, however, there might be conditions where natural resources might be difficult to discover. It is an interesting idea.
I saw this link to "
Supply Side Jesus", which appears in Al Franken's new book. I need to get the book.
A good article at Salon about Robots taking over the workforce. It describes the plight, particularly of cashiers, whose jobs are being replaced by automation. In the 60s it was check-processing. In the 70s, it was manufacturing. In the 80s, it was ATMs. In the 90s, people talked about how supermarket scanners had 'deskilled' cashier work. Now, with pay-at-the-pump and automated check-out systems, cashiers are being removed altogether. The author points out that there are some things that people don't want done by robots. For example, he says
If you tried on a suit at a store and a robot told you it thought you looked great, would you trust it?
I would ask "If a robot or a used car salesman told you that a used car was right for you, which would you trust more?"
The article claims that companies are using the savings to hire people that provide a better 'value added' than cashiering -- that WalMart already has the low end, and so the competition will be to offer more and better service. I can just imagine going to the dog-food aisle and having some poor sucker trying pathetically to help me feel at home among the dog food. "What kind of dog do you have sir? A boxer! What a great dog! You must feel very lucky. May I suggest Canine Crunchies? They're perfect for large active dogs like yours!" It's only an idle threat anyway, since I already buy my dogfood at Daves Soda and Pet Food City.
I saw Stanley Durnakowski in the Student Union yesterday. Stanley, through almost superhuman effort, accumulated the signatures necessary to get the charter proposal on the ballot. He's back out gathering signatures again in order to get it on the ballot in April. I thought about asking him about why he supported the charter, but didn't. When I saw him again today, I decided I had to ask him.
We had a nice, long conversation. He told me how he had been in the charter process since the beginning and how the process had twisted the proposed charter in ways he hadn't really wanted (and didn't really agree with). But, he said, he had started it and was intending to finish it. He was going to gather enough signatures because he had said he was going to.
"Yeah, but the people who you're complaining about? The new charter helps them. It seems to me that you started out with one goal and what you've ended up, not only doesn't solve it, it undermines your goal."
He agreed that it probably did, but that in order to feel in his own mind that he was following through on his committment, he was still going to gather the signatures and try to put it before the voters again. I said that I respected his integrity and could understand his reasoning, even if I couldn't support the charter. We shook hands and parted amicably. A nice guy.