[Gllug] ist that right that the Oyster card got RFID on it?

[Andy Smith]

On Tue, Jan 16, 2007 at 02:54:31PM +0000, John G Walker wrote:
> On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:37:34 +0000 Andy Smith <andy at lug.org.uk> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 16, 2007 at 01:33:18PM +0000, John G Walker wrote:
> > > Because they have to employ people to collect and process them.
> > > Oyster cards are all about replacing workers with machines.
> > 
> > If you are suggesting this is bad then I assume you'll be selling
> > your computer and paying people to come and do all the things it
> > used to do for you.
> 
> No. If this is wrong you should get rid of your computer and employ
> human beings. If I'm right, then it's cheaper to use a computer. 

What I'm saying is that it comes across like you are suggesting it
is bad to replace workers with machines.

> > Somone had to design those cards.  Someone made them and the
> > machines that make them.  Someone invented the technology.  But no,
> > let's go back to a nomadic lifestyle eh where at least everyone who
> > still survives can be kept busy rolling about in dirt.
> 
> This seems to be correct. Your point being?

My point is that replacing workers with machines is generally good
since it multiplies our potential; most of the modern world we take
for granted today is as a result of replacing workers with machines.

> > This thread really seems to encourage the tinfoil brigade - I'm
> > sure there are no-tech communes you can all join, fill the walls
> > with a Faraday cage and live a blissful life of non-RFID.
> 
> There is a debate going on here which you don't seem to have grasped.

I think I have.

> On the one side, there is what you call the tinfoil brigade, who argue
> that Oyster cards are about surveillance (for reasons not stated).

That well-known cloak and dagger agency, Transport for London..
The credibility of this argument goes as far as the fact it has 3
letters in it and no further.

> On the other side, there are those who might be called  economists, who
> argue that Oyster cards are all about cost-cutting.
> 
> I suspect, from what you wrote above, that if you thought about it you'd
> be on the side of the economist,

I have thought about it and am.  But the email I responded to seemed
to imply that cost-cutting is a bad thing, that reducing the manual
labour required is a bad thing, and even that a socialist cannot
embrace labour-saving technology.

Andy
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 196 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/gllug/attachments/20070116/57554ff3/attachment.pgp>
-------------- next part --------------
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug