Subj : Reality Check!
To   : Todd Sullivan
From : Foxy Ferguson
Date : Sat Sep 28 2002 08:22 pm

TS> If an informal method already exists and works - peer
TS> pressure, for lack of a better term - why go to the trouble
TS> of having it documented?  There are more than enough "rules
TS> lawyers" as it is.

Because humanity as a social animal cannot abide a lack of rules.
So they are created. Often at the expense of human dignity, loss
of personal liberty, and self-responsibility.

If you (generic) drive up to an intersection at 2 am, with nary a
soul in sight anywhere, but there is this automated stop signal,
what generally happens? The human obeys the robot, and stops
until the robot signals that you are allowed to proceed (light
turns green), instead of exercising his judgemental facilities
and going on in spite of the condition of the traffic light.

The propensity of the human species to willingly become slaves to
our own creations does sometimes amaze me. I occasionally wonder
if the ability to make judgements and act decisively upon them
may eventually become so atrophied it becomes lost to the species
as a whole. Should that ever happen, no doubt another species
will probably become dominant in this closed ecological system.

-Foxy
--- Platinum Xpress/Wildcat! v1.4c
 * Origin: Pogo's Place (1:361/1)

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