that shit puts people out of work

heavy lifting is more enjoyable than sitting infron of an automated process. It's not like WOW ITS SO FUN, but it's physical work, and that releases hormones and such, makes you feel like a man. It's why all them meatheads spend fifty hours a day down the gym pumping iron in tight v-necked tshirts which are not at all camp looking. Dudes at work will get a forklift to do stuff when it's quicker to get a pump truck to pull the pallet out by hand (or if there's only a few bags of cement/concrete on it, drag it out literally by hand) because they don't want to do anything. I do it all by hand, unless I need someone to fork it away.

the idea of having everything moved for us by machines/whatever is really harmful to society, we're already becomming a blob-like species and sacrificing all of our functions in the name of convinience. With the way things are going, in two hundred years time, people will be watching Return Of The jedi and criticise Jabba The Hutt for being too thin/energetic. People just don't seem to want to do anything physical. Even changing disks during a game is a CONTROVERSIAL TASK according to the more spherical members of the gaming community.

i kinda disagree. to the degree that machines can be used to automate shitty boring tasks to free up our time to do other things i think they ought to be employed so long as they don't create more problems than they solve, but rlly u gotta start thinking in a context outside of our existing society(post-capitalism, AFTER THE REV DOGG) for this stuff to really unshackle us from most of the shitty labor-intensive work required for survival that used to make up the entirety of our waking lives as a species. hopefully we'll be living healthier more communal lives rather than sitting in little compartments wired up to some kind of a screen all the time

but yea, doing stuff by hand can be pretty rewarding and exercise feels awesome.

completely automated production in and of itself should be a good thing! problem is, we live in a society where we need to sell our labor for wages and the increase in productivity that automation yields means companies can produce more while rendering more and more of the population completely superfluous to capital so u get giant swaths of "surplus populations" which have no prospect for work in the formal economy(thus no means to participate in consumption) on one pole and the other an unprecedented growth in abundance & productivity.

WUT!!!????

WELCOME 2 DA PLANET OF THA SLUMZ

manual labor will start to replace the more resource-inefficient side of automation within our generation's lifetime

generally speaking, working with your hands is a pleasing and relaxing experience for human beings. typing/mousing doesn't count at all. in general humans don't need constant mental stimulation, that's just what our gen is used to. it's like eating mcdonalds. and the less time you can spend staring at a stupid screen the better!!

WELCOME 2 DA PLANET OF THA SLUMZ

this book is good http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Slums-Mike-Davis/dp/1844670228

why? what we've got going right now is unsustainable from multiple perspectives. there are somethings that are (one could argue) necessarily automated, but then there's a lot of stuff that has only been automated to the extent it has for the purpose of competitive profit/economies of scale, and in this case the end result often isn't better for us as a whole. everything that has been going on with the food industry is a good example

dok/bonzi do you know anything about anti-inflammatory foods?

wait

about mental stimulation

how the fuck are we more accustomed to mental stimulation nowadays? Cus from what I understand the most accessible media out there drives us towards mental degradation more than stimulation. For one to actually achieve what you're talking about they'd have to be actively seeking it. And the average person just doesn't do that.
 
the constant torrant of inane subliminal commercialism and philosophical control. that shit wasn't nearly as prominent back in the day. It was def not as easy to obtain mental stimulation but at the same time you weren't being goaded into becoming a fucking vegetable from birth and as a product of which, brainwashed into not giving a shit or thinking that stuff as some kind of mental heresy.
 
I started buying different intellectually creative films and shows and shit. I had the first season of deadwood and breaking bad and a few other things at the house. They couldn't afford to pay for the cable when I was gone so my brothers got into it being the only stuff left in the house and have been sharing it with all their friends since. I'm going to keep progressively buying more films and stuff like that at a progressive rate of intellectualism and see if I can't trick them into a higher education. Eventually..........there will be documentaries...

also I think its been said but we have to discern what kind of labor is "menial" and what isn't. Bathroom attendants, janatorial service, welders, crane operators, assembly line workers. Because this shit isn't black and white and I understand the marxist point of view that humans are naturally above that shit. But every forest needs some fuckin fungi, every lake a bottom feeder. Some people are above that, some people are content with it.

I think we need to be more aware of peoples own personal contemptment or enjoyment for their positions in life, on a personal level. Because as a capitalist society, automating what you personally see as unfit puts alot of those people at an even worse disadvantage then they already are.

why? what we've got going right now is unsustainable from multiple perspectives. there are somethings that are (one could argue) necessarily automated, but then there's a lot of stuff that has only been automated to the extent it has for the purpose of competitive profit/economies of scale, and in this case the end result often isn't better for us as a whole. everything that has been going on with the food industry is a good example

dok/bonzi do you know anything about anti-inflammatory foods?

What about them?  Turmeric  is one of the best.

I need em for my limbs. I use turmeric whenever I make dinner and I have capsules I rarely take but...I need more...

how the fuck are we more accustomed to mental stimulation nowadays? Cus from what I understand the most accessible media out there drives us towards mental degradation more than stimulation. For one to actually achieve what you're talking about they'd have to be actively seeking it. And the average person just doesn't do that.

constant input, constant stimuli. just cuz it's stimulation doesn't mean it's productive. if anything it's the opposite, if you can just veg out to pretty colors and dumb humor or drama, why pursue anything else? brave new world looks on with a smug grin

eg take a look at old tv shows, like Carson's late show vs more recent Letterman shows

oh ok like poking an aemeba with some tweezers is stimuli kind of stimuli

I automatically assumed it had to be constructive

got it

There is a big communal aspect that comes with physical work that you don't get in customer services/office/webstore, and it does make a kinda 'bond'. While I do agree that in perfect utopia-land, it would be good for everything to be automated, we're quite far from that, and I see levelling the economic divide a more important goal at this time. Only when we've made everybody equal, merged the working and middle classes and removed the upper/upper-middle classes will we have a platform to start making such changes.



There's a difference between mental stimulation and intillectual stimulation. Watching WWE is hardely intillectual, but there is a lot to concentrate on, from the colours the noise and the movements, the constant barrage of media, then the adverts which contain all of that in 30 second doses. People have become overly reliant on constant streams of mental stimulation thanks to TV, but it's shit you don't have to think about so it's not intillectual stimulation.

oh hey look at this recent New York Times article about artificial sweeteners (for those who were saying how they're the reason that diet sodas are SO MUCH WORSE FOR YOU than regular sodas) http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/which-sweetener-should-you-choose/?ref=health?src=dayp

oh hey look at this recent New York Times article about artificial sweeteners (for those who were saying how they're the reason that diet sodas are SO MUCH WORSE FOR YOU than regular sodas) http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/which-sweetener-should-you-choose/?ref=health?src=dayp

They're gross.

Also earlchip
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02995/Dr-Weil-Anti-Inflammatory-Food-Pyramid.html

groan i don't want to respond to these diet stuff more. i want to hold out. i don't want to become the hot diet debater. do what you want. also that ny times article is either from industry lobbyist or from a garbage writer (gotta earn that daily living somehow) and actually supports that you're going to take the artificial sweeteners at your own risk... also no sources to studies, doctors also have no sources to their claims. the best source is from as many doctors as possible (preferably from different professional backgrounds and experiences) and by studying actual med lit/studies. there's no in-between if you are serious about the diet/health stuff and not just trying to find support your view (can't give on that sweet coffee/soda/tea/sugar/sweeteners/fruit/meat/veggies/honey/whatever...). rely on institution's dogma or person in a white coat's comforting voice for all i care. nothing personal to anybody in this post.