COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002		This is a book about technology and therefore mainly concerns
C00006 ENDMK
C⊗;
	This is a book about technology and therefore mainly concerns
means and not ends.  Nevertheless some assumptions about ends have
to be made.

	Individuals live for a while and then die, and it seems likely
that humanity as a whole will live for a while (most likely some
billions of years) and then die.  While they live individuals form
goals which they try to realize.  These goals are quite varied, and
they cannot always be regarded as a desire to be happy.  Sometimes
the goals refer to events beyond the lifetime of the individual.

	Our object is to discuss ways in which people may more
readily realize the goals they happen to form.  Thus we don't have
a specific concept of happiness or social welfare with the object
of making everyone happy.  We are not trying to decide what people
ought to want, except that we aren't interested in helping people
interfere with other people's goal seeking.

	We also take the simple-minded view that what people want
is mainly what they say they want.  What society wants is some
kind of resultant of what the individuals want including what
individuals want for society as a whole.

	All this may seem obvious, and maybe it is, but it has
some consequences with which not everyone agrees:

.item←0
	#. If people say they want to ride in big cars, we help them
get their big cars if this can be done without undue interference
with the rights of others.  We don't, as technologists, argue that
if they had better taste or really knew what they want, they would
choose small cars or no cars at all.  Of course, anyone is free to
try to persuade others that they should want what he wants.

	I must confess that the reader has some right to suspect my
libertarian principles, because I will argue that people are smart
in choosing lots of big cars.

	#. People seem to want to live longer and keep healthy longer.
Technology should help them do that.

	#. People seem to want posessions of all kinds.  Technology
should help them get them.  Remark: much desire to posess fancy
cameras, hi-fis and calculators is esthetically motivated.  People
admire neat gadgets.