Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 21:06:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: Three Questions




On Fri, 12 May 1995 glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu wrote:

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

Yes, we're out here, and there was a really vibrant discussion about 
technology and philosophy a while ago, which just died down...
> 
> 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?

This is less philosophical than technical, but it's the stuff we are also 
thinking about in the course I'm teaching at the New School. The drive is 
already ahead of the consumers in the sense that even with Mosaic and 
Netscape, the Net's difficult and not immediately as fun as, say, a 
videogame - further, CD-ROMs are relatively stiff. But what will continue 
apace at a high rate is VR, particularly in the home - home videogames 
using helmets, etc. - because this area is based on competition among 
teen-agers, conspicuous consumption, that sort of thing. The Net itself, 
given another five or so years (being optimistic here, not conservative), 
will be ablet to supply video, etc. - and things will become very 
different at that point...
> 
> 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?
> 
Yes, the diffusion will be retarded - more to the point, by the way, is 
what will happen to the laborers? The area is one of increasing political 
unrest for all sorts of reasons. I made a video a while ago of Juarez, 
the colonias, etc., and the pollution there is absolutely appalling; we 
wouldn't stand for it in the U.S.

Alan

> 
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