Henry Ford on Thomas Edison, "Edison has done more toward abolishing poverty than have all the reformers and statesmen since the beginning of the world. He has provided many with the means to help himself".
I would agree, would you?
Comments
Fricken•39s ago
I would say that poverty is a relative concept, and because technology tends to increase the gap between the wealthiest and poorest persons it ultimately has the effect of creating more poverty. Today You and a million of your closest friends together aren't even worth as much as the single wealthiest dude, that's how broke you all are. Nobody was so broke that they were worth less than a millionth of a person 10k years ago.
Another way to think about it: Technology has increased the number of people. There was a human population bottleneck about 900,000 years ago, and the breeding population was reduced to only a few thousand people. So all the world's assets were divided between them. Now all the world's assets are divided between 8 billion people, which means less wealth per person, and more poverty.
As a technologist here's what's especially impoverishing: You don't get to be the guy who came up with the lightbulb or the mass produced automobile, or the theory of relativity. Ford and Edison took that from you. They took it from everybody.
And of course, Artificial light and gasoline powered locomotion have done nothing to alleviate suffering and death, these are dominant and inescapable components of being alive, as true for modern humans as it was for the neolithic ones. All glory is fleeting.
Fricken•39s ago
Another way to think about it: Technology has increased the number of people. There was a human population bottleneck about 900,000 years ago, and the breeding population was reduced to only a few thousand people. So all the world's assets were divided between them. Now all the world's assets are divided between 8 billion people, which means less wealth per person, and more poverty.
As a technologist here's what's especially impoverishing: You don't get to be the guy who came up with the lightbulb or the mass produced automobile, or the theory of relativity. Ford and Edison took that from you. They took it from everybody.
And of course, Artificial light and gasoline powered locomotion have done nothing to alleviate suffering and death, these are dominant and inescapable components of being alive, as true for modern humans as it was for the neolithic ones. All glory is fleeting.