REM%IMSSS@SU-AI.ARPA (Robert Elton Maas) (03/01/86)
A> Date: Tue, 25 Feb 86 08:24:54 PST A> From: august@jpl-vlsi.arpa A> Subject: RE: Why does "everyone" want to leave the planet? A> The concept of a "free lunch" was proven to be truly impossible in the A> late 19th/early 20th century. There *is* enough work to go around, is it A> possible that some people have been taught that they *don't* have to A> work, and that *someone* will give them their daily bread? The work A> ethic is dying in this country. People *won't* work because they *feel* A> that the job they are qualified for is *beneath* them! Wake up! I have a great idea! (Yeah, nobody appreciates my idea, I'm ahead of my time, but I still think my idea is great.) Let's create a new department of simulated work, perhaps as part of the department of labor. If somebody thinks he wants some job, we set up a computer simulation of that job (easy, in a few years most interestin jobs will be conducted mostly via electronic mail so our simulation merely does the same thing that the real electronic mail system would do in the future). The person can really try the job and realize how much harder and ulcer-making it really is compared to the facade of glory that radiates into the media. Most times the person will realize the grass really isn't greener, and will go back to the original job he has and appreciate how much easier it is than the glorified difficult job. Occasionally the person will actually enjoy the challange of the simulated job and prove himself to be competant, which can be determined by the program, sort of like taking a job-qualification exam (civil service etc.), and so the person get a reccommendation the next time such a job opens. I propose you and Kirk Kelley be in charge of this new department. Kirk can manage the teams of programmers that develop the software, and you can manage the specifications for the various job simulations and the procedures for training disenchanted workers to "play" the fantasy work game and the procedures for evaluating success of play-work in terms of reccommendations for actual employment.