My dreams are frequently punctuated with music, kind of like a soundtrack to a bizarre independent movie. Having had my fill of dire news reports the day before, my memory banks decided that appropriate the closing credits should be "Saviour Machine" by David Bowie.
President Joe once had a dream
The world held his hand, gave their pledge
So he told them his scheme for a Saviour Machine
They called it the Prayer, its answer was law
Its logic stopped war, gave them food
How they adored till it cried in its boredom
'Please don't believe in me, please disagree with me
Life is too easy, a plague seems quite feasible now
or maybe a war, or I may kill you all
Don't let me stay, don't let me stay
My logic says burn so send me away
Your minds are too green, I despise all I've seen
You can't stake your lives on a Saviour Machine
I need you flying, and I'll show that dying
Is living beyond reason, sacred dimension of time
I perceive every sign, I can steal every mind
Don't let me stay, don't let me stay
My logic says burn so send me away
Your minds are too green, I despise all I've seen
You can't stake your lives on a Saviour Machine
1 comment:
This fits with a conversation I had just last night with a friend with technocrat sympathies. I.e., if the design is good enough, everything will be swell. But this overlooks the human factor: Someone will misuse their authority over some part of the whole system. David C. Korten was just in town talking about "the Great Turning," and one of his best insights was (in my paraphrase) that the key to a good society is sound human relationships. Machines are great, but they break down. Relationships also break down, and often broken relationships prevent the repair of broken machines. There's no escaping the human factor. Might as well embrace it.
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