Endnotes1 UK's Covid vaccine minister suggests bars, cinemas and football stadiums could BAN Brits who haven't had jab as he admits No10 is looking at 'immunity passports.' Luke Andrews 30, Daily Mail, November 20202 The rise of microchipping: are we ready for technology to get under the skin? Oscar Schwartz, The Guardian, 8 November 2019.
Through this class, students will become familiar with key ideas and concepts in critical theoryand science and technology studies (STS). We will examine how power and politics areintertwined with technology. This class is based in writing and analysis; students will learn toanalyze case studies using academic theory and through written responses and shortpresentations. Assignments and in-class activities will help students understand, develop, andprepare the final paper.
The rise of microchipping: are we ready for technology to get under the skin
A company in Sweden has been putting microchips in their employees in order to improve efficiency. Frustrated by the hassle of finding keys for doors or a debit card for food? Employees as the Stockholm-based Epicenter can literally use their hand. And while having the microchip implant is currently not mandatory for workers there, the prospect of technology inserted into our body sets off some understandable Orwellian fears. There is a fine line between efficiency and control with new technology.
Phillip (below) is, like me, alarmed by the 50 billion appropriated to underwrite new nuclear power plants in the stimulus package. And this at a time when big capital is repelled by such an unlikely prospect. I'm also skeptical of moneys slated to update the existing power grid and broadband technology. Having recently witnessed the superiority of European Internet and electric, I think we're wasting our credit to catch up with the Joneses. Maybe we're even planning to install outdated solar panels and windmills too late to produce any advantage. China may even be ahead in energy planning because we're so set in our ways by the indoctrinaire powers of vested interests. The American people, for the most part haven't seen beyond the rim of our national toilet bowl, while corporate interests have long been shaping the world to come.
During his inaugural address, Pres, Obama urged America to "put away childish things". And to that end, my sincere hope is that our nation will come to have a revolution, not in bloodly ambition for power, but a revolution in our collective consciousness. All the knowledge we need to put us on a path to unimaginable prosperity is already at hand. However, we much question, not the depths of our ignorance, but the very dogmas concerning knowledge, and our understanding of life itself. For if we cannot do this, without bias, or understanding that truth's path transcends the granite on which false perceptions are built, we will continue on this sea of infinite relativism-a lost "Sorcerer's Apprentice!
Most ppl seem to believe that we can grow our way out of this and thus pay off all the debts at the current prices, which is inherently an inflationary belief, in other words, that we should blow up the bubble again. But the bubble was burst by the lack of productivity to sustain it. The situation will not improve until there is productivity. So in the absence of productivity or some deus ex machina, prices deflate. This is not inherently bad, but the problem is that it creates conflict over who should sustain the loss: debtors or creditors. The answer is both, but the devil is in the details. It is fair to say tho that the rich benefited far more from the run up in prices, because they held equities and assets, and that they should shoulder most of the loss. This shift in wealth has also prevented the poor from affording not only the houses, but the goods they make, so sales dropped, increasing umemployment. But creating more money, if that were possible, which, thank God, it is not, would just increase this deficiency. None of this has to do with fear or animal spirits or lack of credit or confidence. We have enough money. The problem is who has the money, what good it will do there, and what incentives there are to make it work better, in other words, in the structure of our industries, trade relations, and financial system. Those few (I hope) who seem to think we can just sweep our debts under the rug and be done with them are just plain silly, if not exhibiting evidence of some psychological deficiency. Too, this crisis was caused by easy money more than lack of regulations, and concentrating on the latter is like trying to stem crime by putting more cops on the beat and building more jails. The remedy seems plain enough to me. First, tax the rich to help the poor, and balance the budget as much as possible. Second, move interest rates to levels that will encourage those left with money to invest in the productive enterprise we need and agree to refinance mortgages, while shutting off the possibility of creating more asset bubbles. This policy should have been followed in the spring of 2007. I realize no one will like it. The Republicans for the most part want fewer taxes, and the Democrats want to give everyone a handout, but it has to done for the ultimate good of all.
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