00000			WHAT TECHNOLOGY
00100	
00200	by John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford University
00300	
00400		In this book, I shall put forward  some  ideas  on  what  new
00500	technology  we  can  develop that will make human life freeer, safer,
00600	and more pleasant.
00700	
00800		Technology is the application of science to achieve goals. In
00900	this  book,  I  shall  discuss  what new technology can contribute to
01000	making human life freeer, safer, more pleasant and more interesting.
01100	
01200		There are several approaches to studying the impact of future
01300	technology  on human life.  The first is simply to try to predict the
01400	course of technological  development  as  though  it  were  not  much
01500	affected  by  policy  decisions  and  then  to  predict  its effects.
01600	Examples of such studies are "The  Year  2000"  by  Herman  Kahn  and
01700	Anthony  J.   Wiener, "Mankind 2000" edited by Robert Jungk and Johan
01800	Galtung, and the work of the Institute for the Study of the  Future.∀
01900	The  second  approach  is  to  examine the effects of certain present
02000	technology and technology already proposed  for  development  and  to
02100	criticize results  that  seem  bad  and  propose  that  bad  uses  of
02200	technology be stopped.  The third approach is to start  with  certain
02300	problems  facing  humanity  and  ask how technology can contribute to
02400	their solution.   This is our attitude,  and  we  agree  with  Dennis
02500	Gabor's  slogan,  "The  future  cannot  be  predicted,  but it can be
02600	invented." Criticisms of the other attitudes toward  technology  will
02700	be reserved for the polemical chapter of the book.
02800	
02900		We  shall  begin  by  listing  a number of human problems and
03000	discussing the relevance of technology to their solution.
03100	
03200		1. Happiness.  If  we  ask  individuals  for  their  personal
03300	goals, probably more of them will say that they want to be happy than
03400	will give any other answer.  We  must  accept  this  even  though  we
03500	suspect  that  it  is  to  some extent a learned answer. Now, we must
03600	admit that science tells us  very  little  about  what  makes  people
03700	happy,  and therefore it is quite unclear how technology or any other
03800	activity  can  contribute  to  it.   Therefore,   we   advocate   the
03900	psychological  study  of  happiness,  and apart from that, accept the
04000	same goal as the framers of the U. S.  Declaration  of  Independence;
04100	namely,  to  let  people  pursue happiness.  The pursuit of happiness
04200	requires freedom.
04300