Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!bellcore!faline!ulysses!mhuxt!ihnp4!occrsh!uokmax!sarobnet From: sarobnet@uokmax.UUCP (Scott Alan Robnett) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Knowledge Gap Message-ID: <968@uokmax.UUCP> Date: 14 Dec 87 17:07:41 GMT References: <8712132230.AA10889@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Reply-To: sarobnet@uokmax.UUCP () Organization: University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK Lines: 52 Keywords: knowledge, gap, technology, society > We all are familiar with the concept of a Generation Gap, or >a Wealth Gap. But I think that a more ominous concept creeping up on society >is the idea of a Knowledge Gap of which one could say the Technology Gap >is but a subset. > who resist change. Precursors to ill-fated movements are fear and mistrust >and that is exactly what we have. I find myself thinking more and more that >there are two kinds of people emerging from the masses: those who understand >technology and those who don't. To put it more exactly: those who understand >computers and those who don't. These two groups are separating and one of >them is growing in numbers, unfortunately it is the one that is more dangerous > I have these "visions" of mobs of people tearing down all that is >technological and progressive. All because of fear. Maybe these visions >are unfounded, but it seems to me that our society, whether by choice or ac- >cident, is producing such pressures to conform, such pressures to please and >entertain the lowest common denominator, that we have in our hands a Knowledge >Gap among our society which is becoming, in my opinion, dangerous. >have to TRY to stop thinking of ourselves alone and think of the future. >Not the technological future, but the sociological future. Society's >pressures are so great that our children don't stand a chance. WE do. >========================================================================= >Carlos Carrion, MS 301-250D, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA 91109 >.. cit-vax!elroy!jpl-devvax!jplpro!carlos >========================================================================= (sorry about the empty follow up....) Interesting.... sounds sorta like Frank Herbert's _Dune_ science fiction series. He writes of a Galactic Empire where computers were banned after a holy war (the 'Butlerian Jihad') to rid the Galaxy of these vile mechanisms that technological society had spawned. I guess their rational was computers must be destroyed simply because they imitated the human mind. (Sounded like the Ayatollah & Company in Space to me...) The result was a treaty that disallowed any computers to be made or used. Herbert indicates that the technocrats (the 'Ixians') just went underground ..oops! into hiding, (kinda hard to go underground in space :-) and made machines that were on the borderline between what was allowed and what wasn't. Sharp people became thinking machines ('mentats') to do the bookkeeping chores of the Galaxy. Gee, I dunno, what with kids growing up with computers in school and video games and VCR's and microwaves and etc. etc. ad infinitum; just who will be left in 40+ years (at least in this country) that will opose technology for technology's sake? Or do you feel that a violent overthrow of technology is imminent? _____________________________________________________________________________ |Disclaimer? No, I don't disclaim |'I will not fear. Fear | Scott Robnett | |anything I write. (But U of Ok has|is the little death that| EECS student | |nothing to do with it) |brings total obliter- | University of OK| | |ation' - Litany against Fear - _Dune_ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------