Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 16:17:10 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Neal Stephenson on Star Wars

At 02:37 PM 6/17/05 -0400, Michael Walsh wrote:
>Sorry aboutthe looooong url:
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/opinion/17stephenson.html?ex=1276660800&a
mp;en=a693ccc4ec008424&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

He's got a good point here (several, actually):

"Scientists and technologists have the same uneasy status in our society as
the Jedi in the Galactic Republic. They are scorned by the cultural left
and the cultural right, and young people avoid science and math classes in
hordes. The tedious particulars of keeping ourselves alive, comfortable and
free are being taken offline to countries where people are happy to sweat
the details, as long as we have some foreign exchange left to send their
way. Nothing is more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could
be masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple lives: to
have a geek standard of living and spend our copious leisure time vegging
out."

-- Mike B.
--
God is REAL, unless explicitly declared INTEGER.