More generally: what happens when technological advancements threaten the livelihood of various persons and/or business models?
This issue has come up many times since the industrial revolution. Some examples being machines that make shoes putting cobblers out of work (you cited that), or the invention of the automobile putting a serious dent in the horse industry. I see stories all the time of jobs being replaced by computers. Is this legal? Yes, but that wasn't the question. Is it moral? That's a good question for discussion.
Personally, I feel that in the long run, society will adapt to those lost jobs. For instance, for every job lost to a computer, there is another one created in the IT field. Really, whether it's moral or not boils down to the individual case. One instance I'm aware of was when a receptionist at an office left the job voluntarily for personal reasons. Rather than hire a new receptionist, the company opted to install webcams to see who came in. I see nothing wrong with this. If they had fired the receptionist to make room for the webcams, that could be argued to be unethical.
My parents own an old, nearly 30 year-old color TV that was made by a now defunct company, and it still works fine. I've had every Nintendo system from the original NES to the GameCube hooked up to that thing, in fact right before coming online I was playing Metroid Prime on it. It stinks only having one speaker for games like that, but the picture is remarkably good. Better than some new TV's if you ask me.
I'm the original submitter (wow, I actually got on the Slashdot front page!) and I got a detail wrong: it is NOT limited to just US Residents, it is a worldwide beta test. Moderators, please make the appropriate change on the front page. Thanks.
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More generally: what happens when technological advancements threaten the livelihood of various persons and/or business models?
This issue has come up many times since the industrial revolution. Some examples being machines that make shoes putting cobblers out of work (you cited that), or the invention of the automobile putting a serious dent in the horse industry. I see stories all the time of jobs being replaced by computers. Is this legal? Yes, but that wasn't the question. Is it moral? That's a good question for discussion.
Personally, I feel that in the long run, society will adapt to those lost jobs. For instance, for every job lost to a computer, there is another one created in the IT field. Really, whether it's moral or not boils down to the individual case. One instance I'm aware of was when a receptionist at an office left the job voluntarily for personal reasons. Rather than hire a new receptionist, the company opted to install webcams to see who came in. I see nothing wrong with this. If they had fired the receptionist to make room for the webcams, that could be argued to be unethical.Fifth Post!
Whoever moderated that to off topic totally didn't get it...
My parents own an old, nearly 30 year-old color TV that was made by a now defunct company, and it still works fine. I've had every Nintendo system from the original NES to the GameCube hooked up to that thing, in fact right before coming online I was playing Metroid Prime on it. It stinks only having one speaker for games like that, but the picture is remarkably good. Better than some new TV's if you ask me.
I'm the original submitter (wow, I actually got on the Slashdot front page!) and I got a detail wrong: it is NOT limited to just US Residents, it is a worldwide beta test. Moderators, please make the appropriate change on the front page. Thanks.