by Kenneth Workman - 11.6.2002
The Lemming Effect
Over the last decade the advancement of new technology has been the foundation of my life. But the foundation has crumbled. When I was a young boy my father was at the forefront of 1950's technology. One man - one machine producing one part. Then technology stepped forward and allowed a single worker to run a machine that could do the work of fifty men. Today technology has given a single man the power to produce the work of two hundred and fifty men. Now, if that were not bad enough technology stepped in and allowed that single man to run five machines all capable of doing the work of 250 men. 1 = 1250.
Society, and its structure, then dictated that an American worker was too expensive to employ and sent that one job overseas to a worker that costs 1/5th the operating cost of an American worker. This is where it gets dangerous.
When our economy is based on an import structure the need for people is reduced. Yes, workers can be retrained but the real world does not allow for that process to take place. A compression effect occurs and the worker can never catch up because their base education is too narrow and their ability to re-educate while retraining will never come into rhythm.
Technology is driven by a need to support growth. Growth is driven by demand. Demand is fueled by the ability of a society to consume. Consumption is a product of the ability to pay for the goods they need. When society reaches a point where it loses its ability to consume along with the realization that their needs to live are much less, the cycle collapses. At this point the lemming effect kicks in. Never before in the history of man has this happened. The two aspects of over- population and over-production have never been together at the same time on this planet.
History has always provided man with a system of checks and balances. Man has broken the cycle. War, disease, and shifts of the population over the planet have always relieved the pressure and have embraced technology as a path to a better life. This has now all come to an end. Man/technology has also created a vast distance between the haves and the have-nots.
The events of the last few years are the beginning of a new time for man. Technology, once it has been created, cannot be destroyed. Man has created a new way to eliminate himself, but this time the process will be slow and dark.
Those who have the skills to retool their minds to accept a new standard of living along with the ability to redefine their true primal needs will live. Those who cannot adapt will no longer be able to live. Only two paths will be available. First will be a mass population with extremely low living standards, or a very small population with higher living standards.
As man is pushed over the cliff it will be by the hand of technology.
I have just communicated, stored and transmitted to you a letter that was not even capable of being produced 20 years ago.
