Monday, April 25, 2016

Of Robots and Government Policies

I am currently reading Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov and I would like to share a quote from the book that provides social commentary in the context of social unrest.

The context is that more and more human jobs are being replaced by robots ever since the invention of the "positronic brain." As time goes on, increasingly advanced robots are being built. The scene is at a department store where the clerks have recently been replaced by robots. A female shopper starts complaining about not wanting to be served by robots and this complaint starts a chain of events that eventually leads to a mob forming outside the store that is on the verge of rioting and tearing apart the robots. The author covers the fact that most of humanity has an increasingly more severe fear of being replaced by robots and one of the ways this fear manifests itself is through riots throughout the city. He then continues to make an astute observation on the topic of social unrest:

... individual robots were not to blame. Individual robots could at least be struck at. One could not strike at something called 'governmental policy' or at a slogan like 'higher production with robot labor.'

This observation touches upon the fact that majority of people are not able to process complex or abstract ideas, especially when they are angry. They want something straightforward and concrete to attack so they can vent their frustrations. I imagine this might even be the case with most of Trump's supporters. They are angry at various government policies and other complex issues involving numerous stakeholders, thoroughly vested interests, and situations that have a long history. These individuals are frustrated and are looking for an outlet for venting their anger against something/someone that is easy to visualize and hate on. This could partially explain some of the racism and hatred present among Trump's supporters. They need a way to channel their anger and Trump is providing them with easy and simple targets that don't involve analysis or thinking of any sort. It's tempting and very human to take the path of least resistance when solving a problem. In this case, the "problem" is frustration that has no easy outlet.

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Hark Triton, hark! Bellow, bid our father the Sea King rise from the depths full foul in his fury! Black waves teeming with salt foam to smother this young mouth with pungent slime, to choke ye, engorging your organs til' ye turn blue and bloated with bilge and brine and can scream no more - only when he, crowned in cockle shells with slitherin' tentacle tail and steaming beard take up his fell be-finned arm, his coral-tine trident screeches banshee-like in the tempest and plunges right through yer gullet, bursting ye - a bulging bladder no more, but a blasted bloody film now and nothing for the harpies and the souls of dead sailors to peck and claw and feed upon only to be lapped up and swallowed by the infinite waters of the Dread Emperor himself - forgotten to any man, to any time, forgotten to any god or devil, forgotten even to the sea, for any stuff for part of Winslow, even any scantling of your soul is Winslow no more, but is now itself the sea!

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The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right. -Vincent van Gogh