Technology Created Feminism - And a Lot of Other Things, Too

"All machines are amplifiers" - Cooper's Law

Machines amplify our abilities, for good and bad. They can be used to free us or oppress us. That's means they're amoral.

A pistol, for example, just amplifies a fist about a thousand-fold. They amplify our eyes (think of all the cameras on the street), our computational power, our ears. They extend our reach and our power. Again, for good and bad.

This amplification means it's risky business trying to predict the future, of how machines will affect us. Who could predict what the internet would do? And who knows how many people will be put out of work by the coming automation of many jobs?

And I certainly wonder about altering our genetics to "improve" us. None of us, obviously could be done without advanced technology.

We're so clueless about what machines are doing to us that some have postulated the Singularity: "a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement, or brain-computer interfaces will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence, radically changing civilization, and perhaps human nature."

Who predicted what something as simple as washing machines would do? For one thing, they freed women from pounding the family clothes on a rock in the river. If you think about it, feminism was created by machines, because it freed women from a life of drudgery,

And who created all those machines? Men.

Isn't that ironic? Men created machines, which freed women from a life of drudgery, and many responded by saying they were "oppressed." You know, by the "patriarchy."

The cure, of course, was to move schooled women (the certainly weren't educated) into fields created by men. The easier ones, at least. Not being carpenters and mechanics.

And to also give them political power.

I find the whole thing a bit mystifying. Men have created all these things - for all practical purposes, everything - and many women seem to think they can do a better job of running things. I snicker.

I have found many women to be natural socialists/fascists. Everyone is supposed to be "equal," except for course for those who rule, who think they are superior to superior to everyone else.

The whole thing is bizarre. It's a big mess. The coming automation is probably going to put many people out of jobs, permanently.The government is going to use machines to oppress us and create a police state (think body armor, militarized vehicles and advanced weaponry - all amplifications of our natural abilities). Many women are still claiming they're oppressed when machines freed them.

All I can do is laugh, and wonder what is coming.