atw: Re: SEC: UNCLASS RE: The decreasingly meaningful authoring experience
- From: "Steve Hudson" <adslyy5g@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 13:35:26 +1000
> it is an important topic that's not just of theoretical interest but also
could directly affect the future of technology and its coexistence with us
Completely agree, which is why I keep a close eye on its progression. The
Future timeline for technical writing is at tech whirlers if you want a
squizzy.
> I see it as reflecting a mistaken view of technology, in which the human
role has been suppressed
Here is my analogy.
In China, 8 people are required to harvest a field. In Australia, we have
one person driving a tractor. Your argument says that we created a new job -
Tractor Driver - so thus there are more opportunities for farmhands to find
work. My argument says a piece of technology has replaced the work of 8
people with the work of 1, slashing the available jobs (pardon the pun).
In China, there are 8 human roles. In Australia, there is one. Thus in
Australia, the human role has been replaced with a technology. Yes, there is
still some human input there, but it has drastically changed. No longer is
it hands-on, instead it is an abstracted representation of the activity.
-----Original Message-----
From: Silcock, Howard DR
Thanks, Steve. I don't think I can have been around for your earlier post on
this topic.
I'm interested in this not so much because of its impact on our employment
prospects but because I see it as reflecting a mistaken view of technology,
in which the human role has been suppressed. I don't have time now to go
into it properly, but I think it's important that we keep in mind that *all*
technology is ultimately a product of human minds and that information is
not a thing sitting out there independent of human existence but a record of
human activity, enquiry and research. And yes, a template is something that
has an author, and I hope such things are designed by people who know
something about writing rather than by some of the software engineers whose
attempts at writing I have to decipher! I'd even say the reports that your
scripts put out are in some important senses authored.
I don't have time to say any more on this now, but think it is an important
topic that's not just of theoretical interest but also could directly affect
the future of technology and its coexistence with us.
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