The Time Machine as social commentary
on
The Timekeeper
·
· Score: 1
John Katz has Well's 'Time Machine' wrong. The social structure it criticised was not that of nobility vs. commoner; it was that of technician vs. the rest. The technicians knew how to make things and operate things - but they lacked philosophy and refined tastes. The rest - the politicians, executives, bankers...the chattering classes - had opinion and art and religion, but didn't know how to run a train or a power plant or anything else. In Well's future, this difference is taken to the extreme.
John Katz has it wrong on one point. Anti-trust laws are primarily to protect those who would compete in the market, and only secondarily the consumer. He cites the break-up of Standard Oil as protecting the consumer from higher prices; but Standard Oil was actually lowering prices as it gobbled up its competitors. It was this that caused Congress to pass the anti-trust laws.
Does Intel's Coppermine use copper traces - I think not, since that technology was only recently developed by IBM/Motorola. Are they calling it "Coppermine" just to confuse people who are aware of the IBM/MC chips?
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John Katz has Well's 'Time Machine' wrong. The social structure it criticised was not that of nobility vs. commoner; it was that of technician
vs. the rest. The technicians knew how to make things and operate things - but they lacked philosophy and refined tastes. The rest - the politicians, executives, bankers...the chattering classes - had opinion and art and religion, but didn't know how to run a train or a power plant or anything else. In Well's future, this difference is taken to the extreme.
John Katz has it wrong on one point. Anti-trust laws are primarily to protect those who would compete in the market, and only secondarily the consumer. He cites the break-up of Standard Oil as protecting the consumer from higher prices; but Standard Oil was actually lowering prices as it gobbled up its competitors. It was this that caused Congress to pass the anti-trust laws.
Does Intel's Coppermine use copper traces - I think
not, since that technology was only recently
developed by IBM/Motorola. Are they calling it
"Coppermine" just to confuse people who are aware
of the IBM/MC chips?