From: "otto" <PYRBH-AT-snow.csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Date:          Sat, 13 May 1995 01:55:30 +0100 (BST)
Subject:       Re: Three Questions


Date:          Fri, 12 May 1995 20:03:47 -0400 (EDT)
From:          glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu
To:            technology-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject:       Three Questions
Reply-to:      technology-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu


1)  Is there anybody out there?  I haven't received any messages from 
this list.

>>Hello - your message is actually the 1st 1 I've gotten from this
list since I joined over a week ago, so I would have guessed that
the server was down, except that I get mail every day from other
lists sent by jefferson.village.virginia (the d&g list &
marxism-digest, for 2).  Maybe there was a mass suicide on this list
or something?  Can anyone clue us newones in on the status of
discussion?  Since it's a weird situ, I'll do something i rarely do
& actually give my opinions on your other 2 questions. . . 

2)  How will the merger movement and "maturation" in the personal 
computer industry (especially the software market) affect the pace of 
development of new product technologies in that industry?

>>Hmmmm. . . You know some s/w companies filed anti-trust suit against 
mr. microsoft, & they have perturbed the judge in the case by 
demanding to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from microsoft? 
(read this in edupage this week.)  And in reality, microsoft can 
crush anyone they like - this is probably a common topic of 
discussion/bitching on lists that I don't read.  But I follow that 
often bastardized line that s/w & computers in general are 
qualitatively different types of products, & it is indeed within the 
power of anyone with an unimplemented idea to startup a compnay & 
have a million dollars within 2 months.  

>>The WWWeb & easy-to-use e-money will only accelerate this freedom
of the isolated entrepeneur, to distribute a
product/service/newsoftware or info via the net, & collect a charge.
 even at 1 penny per page of good info/pictures/software, if you
have a crowd of 1000s downloading your info pages daily, you can
quit your day job & start investing in servers & product
development.  This is also why fictitious products & ubiquitous big
companies in science fiction novels always seem so realistic &
natural - we have no problem believing that someone in 2004 will
come up with an ingenious X that everyone will immediately buy, like
Mr. Lee's Hong Kong franchises in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. 
This is just one aspect of your question, & I'm sure if you'v heard
of these things, you were probably asking about the bigger picture. 
What do you think?

3)  How will NAFTA affect factory automation in U.S. industries?  For 
example, will the diffusion of industrial robotics, CAD/CAM, and flexible 
manufacturing systems be retarded if manufacturers choose to build plants 
in the North of Mexico which are labor-intensive (and which pay low wages 
and benefits and require less skills) rather than plants using advanced 
industrial process technologies?

>>To my blind-capitalist-side, a robot & a cheap worker are 
interchangeable.  If an automated plant can be mad efficient enough 
so that the cost of each robot or chunk of hardware is the same or 
less as the cost of a norten~o worker, than hi-tek plants will 
survive & thrive on the push of the competition from the south.  If 
robots turn out to be too expensive or costly to maintain, which they 
often are - see article about Toyota City's new less automated, more 
productive production line in a recent Economist - then more business 
& economic power will go to mexico & begin to seep further south to 
the even cheaper workers in central & south america.  

>>The labour union politics of this are obviously much more
complicated.  Mexico's big labour leaders said this week that the
pay raises have already been exceed by the inflation rate to April,
& so the rest of the inflation thru the year will just push real
wages further in the hole, until workers are paid something
completely reeediculous & unlivable like a dollar or 2 a day.  They
threaten strikes & violence already, so by the end of summer I hope
things get real nasty for Colosio, IMHO, I should add!

>>So please do respond, as I'd like to know what this list is like, 
though I won't have time to contribute much (see WWW address below 
for details of my servitude).  see you. . . 

otto 
virtual-futures-AT-warwick.ac.uk 
Tel: (44) (01203) 523-523 x2952, or x2582
Fax: (44) (01203) 523-019
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/WWW/faculties/social_studies/Philosophy/vf95web.html
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