Re: Analyzing technologies

[Ajit Sinha <ecas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:51 23/12/97 -0800, Mike E. wrote:
>
>While what you say here is true, my understanding is that the primary
>motivation for the development of new varieties of tomatoes at the UC-Davis
>Agricultural School was the need for a variety that would be tough enough to
>hold up to harvesting by mechanical tomato harvesters, and ones that would
>ripen slowly off the vine, enabling distribution to national markets.  The
>mechanical harvester was developed to replace field labor and to automate
>the harvesting process.  In part this was a response to labor availability
>and costs -- a function of immigration policy -- but these were not the only
>considerations.
________________

One question: why should labor cost motivate mechanical harvesters. Why
can't tomatos just become more expensive? Where there other tomato growing
areas where labor was cheaper?
____

>Regarding the larger point of this chapter, it seems to me that what
>characterizes the information age is the commodification of a far larger and
>varied amount of information for the market and a larger number of new
>technologies which put a premium on instanteneous delivery.  Thus, as you
>point out, the very definition of what is considered information becomes
>subject to both technical and market forces.  In these terms, there is
>undoubtedly a huge explosion in the amount of information available, but an
>ever greater disconnect between "information" and intelligence or knowledge.
________________

I think we need to separate the pure consumption of information technology
and its use in the production process. I think most of the popular
treatment of this information technology is almost intirely based on the
consumption aspect of it by the higher and middle classes.

I liked Mike P.'s chapter on this issue. Specially the whole issue of short
hand hoe. Cheers, ajit sinha