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Article 1512 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Daniel Dennett
Message-ID: <39652@dime.cs.umass.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 91 21:21:42 GMT
References: <DAVIDMC.91Nov21100802@fsd.cpsc.ucalgary.ca> <39586@dime.cs.umass.edu> <1991Nov22.185012.21228@milton.u.washington.edu>
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In article <1991Nov22.185012.21228@milton.u.washington.edu> monaghan@milton.u.washington.edu (Tracy Monaghan) writes:
>In article <39586@dime.cs.umass.edu> yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken) writes:
>>In article <DAVIDMC.91Nov21100802@fsd.cpsc.ucalgary.ca> davidmc@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (davidmc) writes:
>>>zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
>>>   >I believe that the very notion of "Man a Machine" is anti-humanistic both
>>>   >in its intrinsic nature, and in its historical development (the guillotine,
>>>   >labor camps, terrorist state).
>>>
>>>Is a non-anthropocentric theory necessarily anti-humanistic?
>>>(I don't think so.)
>>
>>But a machine-centered view is. For example,  some of the hopes of
>>AI types include development of a machine that will supersede humans.
>>If that ain't anti-humanistic, I don't know what is.
>
>If a backhoe can dig faster than a human, is it anti-humanistic?
>If a car/train/plane travels faster than human, is it anti-humanistic?
>If an automated loom can weave faster than a human, is it anit-humanistic?
>
>Are you a Luddite?

Yup. That is, I'm not anti-machinery, but I'm against making human beings
subservient to machinery. Thus, computers are fine, computers that
control people are not fine. The prospect of a mechanical god does not
fill me with joy.  See David Nobel's article in Dedalus a few years
ago for a good summary of Luddism. 


