Change and progress

[Julian Humphries]

> Date:          Wed, 13 Mar 1996 10:52:47 -0700
> Reply-to:      Joe Laferriere <josephl at CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>
> From:          Joe Laferriere <josephl at CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Subject:       Change and progress
>
> > Did Jim say "progress" or "change"?
>
> Answer from Joe:
>
> He said "change," and I should have used the same word in my own message.
> My whole point is that change is inevitable, but progress is not. The
> underlying assumptions behind all the proposals I've seen is either that
> everything will stay the same as it is now or that it will continue to
> make the kind of progress we have seen over the last few decades. The
> former is impossible, the latter possible but not inevitable.
>

But the point is your message missed the point and nothing you say
above impacts on Jim's or Peter's statements.  You may not like it,
you may not call it progress, but change, as you say, is inevitable
and our profession has dealt poorly with change in the past and seems
to continue to do so today.  Was getting rid of the "fireman" on
trains progress?  I don't know, but I do know the job is gone.

Nothing about any of the arguments relevant to electronic publication
depends on "progress" as much as they do on a shift toward electronic
forms of communication (good or bad) in all aspects of life.  The
point of all of your arguments against our own communication
methodology moving forward are moot unless you believe there is no
risk in counting on the collapse of civilization.  *Relying* on no
change (or progress or whatever) seems a most foolhardy strategy.




Julian Humphries
Ecology and Systematics, The MUSE Project
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853
Phone: 607-257-8143    Fax: 607-257-8109
__________________________________________
A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office
 that a Republican wants.
 Alben W. Barkley (1877-1956),  U.S Vice President (1949-1953)