NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9470

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From: [e-mail] (Ronda Hauben)
Subject: ACN Supplement-Usenet Pt2
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[ Article crossposted from alt.amateur-comp,news.misc ]
[ Author was Ronda Hauben ]
[ Posted on Fri, 18 Dec 92 02:05:11 EST ]


Part II of Amateur Computerist Supplement on Usenet News

               CityNet in Wellington, New Zealand

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Networks as Social Change Tool

Another good example is the Wellington City Council's "CityNet"
here in New Zealand's capital city. CityNet offers seven dialin
lines with 24 hour access to unlimited telnet, ftp, USEnet, IRC
and other Internet services worldwide and free of charge.

Public terminals are available in the Wellington City Main
Library for people who do not own computers. There is also
Senior Net, run by Wellington City Council and Telecom New
Zealand. Senior Net allows elderly people to converse in real-
time with other seniors in the US and around the world via
computer. The computers are Digital PC's and are located at a
convenient central location.

Back to CityNet. Local planning regulation, bylaws, and other
documents of interest are available for ratepayers to read on-
line or download. Ratepayers can also send e-mail to the mayor or
City Councilors or other city administrators.

This is a great concept. The ratepayers pay for the service in
the first place - so why not let the ratepayers use it? Sounds
like common sense to me, yet this is very rare among
municipalities.

Steve Withers, Wellington, New Zealand


Learning About Usenet and Freenet

From: [e-mail] (Robert Kastigar)
Subject: HELP learning

   I saw your name and address in a new conference that popped up
on my...Hell, I don't even know what to call it! It was a
conference or something on a university computer. It suggested
new computer users and computer training. I thought I'd look.

   When it mentioned the outgrowth of a joint union/management
program (that was discontinued) it REALLY got my attention.

   When I saw your name, and your affiliation with the Cleveland
Freenet, I decided to send you this message. The funny thing is,
I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to mail it!

   Let me introduce myself: I'm a 30 year member of a labor
union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local
1220.

   I work as a technician in television. I've been active both in
my union and my trade. I bought my first computer about 13 years
ago. The more I learn, the dumber I realize I seem to be getting.

   I have taught groups in computer technology, both within our
union and company. I started a public access dialup Bulletin
Board for our local union about 5 years ago, with moderate
success.

   I am also a student at Northeastern Illinois University in
Chicago, an undergraduate. I could have graduated some time ago,
but I haven't finished my education yet.

   As "sysop" of our local's Bulletin Board, I am continuously
looking for material for the BBS related to labor. I stumbled
across the Cleveland Freenet some time ago and decided that
this might well be a motherload of material. One drawback: it
was a long distance call.

   Then I heard of the Internet (from the Cleveland Freenet) and
found out that, as a student, I had access to it! However, there
was another drawback: learn UNIX, not DOS.

   At my advanced age, is there no end to this learning?

   So my question, which I hope you can help me with, is this: Is
it possible for me to "log onto" the Cleveland Freenet via this
Internet connection courtesy of the local college? If so, how?

   I realize that 'the local college' and this Internet itself,
and this trn (trn is a Usenet News newsreader -ed) service is a
vast repository of information, but I don't know how to access
it! At least the Cleveland Freenet BBS was user-friendly, even at
the cost of a long distance phone call.

   I do have an account at the Cleveland Freenet; my logon name
is ce763. My logon name, and address at Northeastern Illinois
University is [e-mail]. My real life name is Bob
Kastigar! (It occurs to me that maybe I ought to get rid of one
of those two computer names to avoid mail getting sent to the
wrong place. But if I do that, then I won't have a name and
password to get into that system! Is this a problem?)

   I really don't expect you to be my 'personal tutor' - just
tell me where to go to get started learning. If you did THAT in
your newsletter, that would be a service. (See article Two Books
to Help Users elsewhere in this issue -ed)

   By the way, can I quote/ borrow/ steal from your newsletter
material and use it on my Local's BBS, if I give credit for the
source? Is this 'legit' to do from other TRN (i.e. Usenet News -
ed.) conferences?

   I mentioned my local union is one of technicians. You would be
amazed at how few of them realize that the computer can be a
useful tool for communications! Do work, write letters, operate
machine, balance checkbooks - computers are fine for that. But to
use a computer to learn, get information, or write epistles to
other PEEPUL? to communicate? Somehow it strikes terror in some
people.

   Thank you for any help you can offer.

  (Sorry about the double spacing of this message. I composed it
off-line. Is this like chat? talk?)

(Editor's note: The IBEW Local 1220 BBS can be reached at
708-292-1223)

                          Freenet BBS's

   There are several Freenet computer BBS's that have become
available to computer users who can access the Internet. Also,
these BBS's have local telephone numbers. Following are some of
these BBS's, their Internet addresses and their telephone
numbers:

Cleveland Freenet
  freenet-in-a.cwru.edu
  216-368-3888
  (sign in as fnguest)
Youngstown Freenet
  yfn.ysu.edu
  216-742-3072
  (log in as visitor)
Heartland Freenet (Peoria Illinois)
  heartland.bradley.edu
  309-674-1100
  (visitor ID is: bbguest)
Lorain County Freenet
(Lorain County, Ohio)
  Lorain: 216-277-2359
  Elyria: 216-366-9753
  (visitor ID is: guest)
Medina County Freenet
(Medina, Ohio)
  216-723-6732
Tri-State Online
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
  513-579-1990
  (visitor ID is: visitor)

                    In Defense of Technology:
    `Arte', Computers and the Wonderful World of Usenet News:
                    A Historical Perspective
                         (in two parts)

   "Another advantage of industry and of refinements in the
mechanical arts, is that ...Minds...being once aroused from their
lethargy, are put into fermentation, turn themselves on all sides
and carry improvements into every art and science."
  David Hume, "Of Refinements in the Arts"

   "Can we expect, that a government will be well modelled by a
people, who know not how to make a spinning-wheel, or to employ a
loom to advantage?"
  David Hume, "Of Refinements in the Arts"

                          INTRODUCTION

   During the past two decades there have been important
technological breakthroughs. The personal computer, a science
fiction dream for generations, is now available as a household
appliance in a way that only the typewriter was just a few years
ago. Also, a public conferencing network called Usenet News
carried on telecommunications networks like the Internet, UUCP,
and others, encourages public discussion and free exchange of
ideas on a world wide scale.

   The social implications of these developments are rarely
discussed in the public arena. Instead the voices dominating any
public discussion usually are those of condemnation of the
computer and of criticism of technological change and
development. This article is an effort to begin serious discus-
sion of these technological advances. It is also an effort to
examine how such technological developments can increase the
social wealth of our society.

   Part 1 looks back to how philosophers and other serious
thinkers historically evaluated the role of such new technology
in increasing the social wealth of a society. It examines how
they established the principles needed to answer critics of
technological change and development.
(See 'Arte', page 12)

   Part 2 describes one of the most important
technological achievements of the 20th century - Usenet News.
Finally this article concludes that it is only by the active
encouragement and participation in the computer and technological
revolution that a better world can be won.

                             Part 1
      The Role of "Arte" in the Production of Social Wealth

   The question of whether technological development benefits
society is an important question. Recently there have been
numerous articles, books, journals, etc. that claim such devel-
opments are only harmful to society. (For references to some of
this literature see "Questioning Technology", The Whole Earth
Review, No. 73, Winter, 1991.) The social implications of new
technological developments like the computer and the
telecommunications networks it has made possible, should not be
dismissed as harmful developments as this literature implies.
Voices defending these developments as the significant social
advances they are, need to become part of the public debate. To
gain some perspective on the principles at stake in this
controversy, it is helpful to look back to early economic writers
and their studies about the value to a society of "arte" or what
modern writers would call the development of technology.

   Writing in the Great French Encyclopedia, Diderot (1713-1784)
pointed out the striking contradiction of modern society. Even
though the wealth of society is produced by those who do the work
of that society, they are the least respected and the study of
the "mechanical arts" which is necessary to make work most
productive is treated with disdain and disrespect. Diderot,
defining "Art" describes this contradiction. He writes: "Place on
one side of the balance the real benefits of the most exalted
sciences and the most honored `arts' and on the other side those
of the `mechanical arts', and you will find that the esteem
granted to both has not been distributed in the correct
proportion of these benefits; and that people praised much more
highly those men who were engaged in making us believe that we
were happy, than those men actually engaged in doing so. What odd
judgments we make! We demand that people be usefully employed and
we scorn useful men."(1)

   The 17th and 18th centuries were a period of profound social
and economic change. This period of history saw great
transformation in the ability of society to produce the
necessities and conveniences of life for a growing population.
Accompanying this social transformation was a growing concern
with the role that the mechanical arts (called "arte") play in
the production of social wealth on the part of those who tried to
apply the methods of science to economic questions.

   Such concern with the question of "arte" was not new.
Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle had examined this economic
category, considering it one of the important categories to be
studied. For Plato, as he explains in his dialogue "Protagoras,"
the mechanical arts were akin to a gift from the gods, the sole
advantage that humans had in their struggle for survival with the
rest of the animal kingdom. They were the essential element which
gave people the ability to survive in a hostile world.

   Plato tells the story of how the gods Prometheus and
Epimetheus were charged with populating the world with living
creatures. They created a variety of life, giving to each species
an advantage to help it to survive. But by the time they came to
create humans, they had exhausted the traits they could provide.
"Man alone," remarks Plato, "was naked and shoeless, and had
neither bed nor arms of defense." Plato then explains how
Prometheus, not knowing how else to be helpful to humans, "stole
the mechanical arts of Hephaestus and Athene, and fire with them
(they could neither have been acquired nor used without fire),
and gave them to man." Thus Plato, via this parable, shows how
only the mechanical arts, which differentiated humans from the
rest of the animal kingdom, have made human life sustainable.(2)

   Aristotle demonstrates a similar high regard for "arte" which
is defined as "scientific knowledge and the corresponding skill
of how to produce something in accordance with that
knowledge."(3) In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle distinguishes
art from nature and explains that "Every art is concerned with
bringing something into existence and to think by art is to
investigate how to generate something which may or may not exist
and of which the [moving] principle is in the producer and not in
the thing produced."(4) He goes on to explain that arte is con-
cerned with things which do not have this [moving] or
regenerating principle in themselves. That arte is concerned with
the production of things that nature does not create on her own.
Hence arte requires the human creator and makes possible the
manifold creations which nature does not provide for on her own.

   Several British writers of the 17th and 18th centuries
continued the Greek tradition of respect for "arte" or "techne"
as the Greek word is transliterated. The mechanical arts were
necessary for the production of the food and clothes and shelter
needed to provide for a population that was moving from the land
under feudalism into the towns and cities that would characterize
the industrial revolution. The annual production of such food,
clothing, shelter and other necessities and conveniences of life
were considered social wealth by these writers. And the economic
category "arte" was seen as the means of facilitating the
production of this social wealth. Thus the economic category
"arte" became a pressing concern.

   Sir William Petty (1623-1687) who has been called "The Father
of Scientific Political Economy" isolated four economic
categories as being crucial for the production of social wealth.
They were labor, land (i.e. nature), arte and stock. Petty main-
tained that the two essential categories were labor and land, and
that labor was the active element and nature the passive element.
He wrote "Labor is the Father and active principle of wealth as
Lands are the Mother."(5) Though human beings could survive
without 'arte', Petty believed that 'arte' was an important
component of life, making it possible to produce more of the
goods and necessities of life with less labor. "Art," he explains
is "equal to the labor and skill of many in producing
commodities."(6)

   In order to increase the public wealth available to society,
Sir William Petty saw only two alternatives. "People must either
work harder," he wrote, "or introduce labor saving processes."
These labor saving processes, according to Petty, save the labor
of many hands and provide more riches for society. "One man by
art," Petty writes, "may do as much work as many without it." (7)
He gives several examples: "viz one Man with a Mill can grind as
much Corn as twenty can pound in a Mortar; one Printer can make
as many Copies, as a Hundred Men can write by hands; one Horse
can carry upon Wheels, as much as Five upon their Backs; and, in
a Boat, or upon ice, as Twenty...."(8)

   For Petty, the choice facing society was to have "few hands"
"laboring harder" or "by introducing the Compendium and
Facilitations of Art" to have a few workers doing the work of
many.(9)

   He refers to the example of Holland which had the advantage of
being able to use Windmills instead of hand labor and thereby the
"advantage of the labor of many thousand Hands is saved, for as
much as a Mill made by one Man in half a year, will do as much
Labor as four Men for five years together."(10) Petty reasoned
that the use of arte to save human labor was a continuing benefit
to society. He demonstrated the long term social advantage gained
from arte over simple labor by an illustration comparing the
production by 'arte' with that of simple labor. "For if by such
Simple Labor," writes Petty, "I could dig and prepare for Seed a
hundred acres in a thousand days; suppose then, I spend a hundred
days in studying a more compendious way, and in contriving Tools
for the same purpose; but in all the hundred days dig nothing."
If he takes the remaining nine hundred days to dig two hundred
Acres of Ground, "then," Petty concludes, "I say, that the Art
which cost but one hundred days Invention is worth one Man's
labor forever; because the new Art, and one Man, performed as
much as two Men could have done without it."(11)

   The social advantage of arte, according to Petty, is that a
large portion of the population is freed from having to produce
the goods needed by society and thus available for other
important work, especially for scientific pursuits. The remaining
people, Petty writes "may safely and without possible prejudice
to the Commonwealth, be employed in Arts and Exercises of
pleasure and ornament; the greatest whereof is the Improvement of
natural knowledge."(pg.12)

   When Petty identifies and describes "arte", his writing is a
part of a body of economic literature during the 17th and 18th
centuries which set out to scientifically define this economic
category. In his article "`Art' and `Ingenious Society'"
reprinted in his book Predecessors of Adam Smith" [1937] (New
York, 1960 reprint, Chapter XIII), E. A. J. Johnson gathers
several descriptions of "arte" and looks at what Petty and other
17th and 18th century economic commentators considered as the
role of "arte" and the effect it has had on the development of
society.

   David Hume (1711-1776), one of the economists Johnson
discusses, echoes Plato's emphasis on the importance of "arte" in
distinguishing human beings from other animals. "There is one
fundamental difference between man and other animals," Hume
wrote, "...Nature has `endowed the former with a sublime
celestial spirit, and having given him an affinity with superior
beings, she allows not such noble faculties to lie lethargic or
idle, but urges him by necessity to employ, on every emergence,
his utmost art and industry'." (Predecessors of Adam Smith,
pg. 264.)

   In this sense "Art" is, according to Johnson, "an ennobling
faculty, implanted by Nature, which separates man from the rest
of the zoological world by making greater production
possible."(Ibid.) Writers like Petty and Hume saw "arte" as the

ability to utilize technology to abridge labor, and thus as a
wondrous faculty peculiar to humans as part of the animal
kingdom.

   Other literary figures, like Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) in Plan
of the English Commerce and writers of economic tracts like The
Advantages of the East India Trade to England Consider'd (1707),
provide examples of the environmental and economic benefits which
accompany the increased use of tools and machines to abridge the
labor necessary for production. In Russia, Defoe explains, where
"Labor was not assisted by Art" there was "no other Way to cut
out a large Plank, but by felling a great Tree and then with a
multitude of Hands and Axes hew away all the Sides of the Timber,
till they reduced the middle to one large Plank." The Swedes or
Prussians, on the other hand, Defoe explains, "could cut three or
four, or more Planks of the like Size from one Tree by the Help
of Saws and Saw Mills. The Consequence" Defoe points out, is
"that the miserable Russian labored ten times as much as the
other (the Swedes and the Prussians -ed.) for the Same Money."
(13) Not only does "arte" make it possible for more goods
to be produced by less labor, but "arte" also makes it possible
to produce more planks of lumber from each tree. When "arte" is
used, fewer trees need to be cut down. And high wages can be paid
to those workers using the most modern technology as they produce
more goods with less labor than workers who use backward produc-
tion techniques.

   The anonymous author of The Advantages of the East India Trade
to England Consider'd (1707) equates advanced technology with the
ability to produce goods more cheaply though the workers
producing them continue to earn higher wages. This writer
maintains, "Arts, and Mills, and Engines, which save the labor of
Hands, are ways of doing things with less labor, and consequently
with labor of less price, though the Wages of Men imploy'd to do
them shou'd not be abated." (pg.66) He also demonstrates the
beneficial catalyst such modern technology provides in encour-
aging new inventions and discoveries. He writes, "And thus the
East India Trade by procuring things with less, and consequently
cheaper labor, is a very likely way of forcing Men upon the
invention of Arts and Engines, by which other things may also be
done with less and cheaper labor, and therefore may abate the
price of Manufactures, tho' the Wages of Men shou'd not be
abated." (pg.67) By using "arte", this writer contends, all
aspects of the production process are improved. He writes that
'arte' "is no unlikely way to introduce ...more Order and
Regularity into our English Manufactures...." (pg.67)

   John Cary, in An Essay on the State of England in Relation to
its Trade (1695, reprint England, 1972), observes that because of
"arte" the price of many manufactures like glass bottles, silk
stockings, sugar, etc. went down even though the wages of the
workers weren't cut. "But then the question will be, how this is
done?" he asks, and he answers "It proceeds from the Ingenuity of
the Manufacturer, and the Improvements he makes in his ways of
working, thus the Refiner of Sugars goes thro' that operation in
a Month, which our Forefathers required four Months to effect."
And "the Distillers draw more Spirits, and in less time...than
those formerly did who taught them the Art." (pg.145-6)

   Cary goes on to list other examples of how improvements in
arte have led to changes in production that have increased the
goods available to the population though they cost less labor and
so are cheaper. He writes: "The Glassmaker hath found a quicker
way of making it out of things which cost him little or nothing,
Silk Stockings are wove instead of knit; Tobacco is cut by
Engines instead of Knives; Books are printed instead of
written;...Lead is smelted by Wind-Furnaces, instead of blowing
with Bellows; all which save the labor of many Hands, so the
Wages of those employed need not be lessened." (pg.146)

   Cary observes that the price of goods has come down, even
though their desirability has improved. He writes, "The variety
of our Woollen Manufactures is so pretty, that Fashion makes a
thing worth both at Home and Abroad twice the Price it is sold
for.... Artificers by Tools and Laves fitted for different Uses
make such things as would puzzle a Stander by to set a price on
according to the worth of Men's Labor; the Plummer by new
Inventions casts a Tun of Shott for Ten Shillings, which an
indifferent Person could not guess worth less than
Fifty."(pg.146) After showing how a similar trend has occurred in
the Navigation trades, Cary concludes, "New Projections are every
day set on foot to render making our Manufactures easy, which are
made cheap...not by falling the Price of poor People's Labor."

   Also, he shows how these advances lead to a general
environment of improved methods of production. "Pits are
drained," Cary writes, "and Land made Healthy by Engines and
Aquaeducts instead of Hands; the Husbandman turns up his Soil
with the Sallow, not digs it with his Spade; Sowes his Grain, not
plants it; covers it with the Harrow, not with the Rake; brings
home his Harvest with Carts, not on Horseback; and many other
easy Methods are used both for improving of Land and raising its
Product, which are obvious to the Eyes of Men versed therein,
though do not come within the Compass of my present Thoughts."
(pg.147-148) And, he notes, these improvements not only lessen
the number of laborers needed to do the work, but also make
possible the payment of higher wages.

   According to these early British economists, Government has a
role to play to support the development of technology. "It should
therefore," writes Johnson, "be the duty of the state to increase
`art'." (Predecessors, pg.266)

   Once the sense of "arte" as the abridgement of labor via some
mechanical or scientific means is established, it is useful to
look at the effect "arte" has had on the life and health of
society.

   Several essays written by David Hume consider the role arte
plays in determining whether a society flourishes or decays, and
thus whether the society can produce the wealth needed to support
its people. Hume observes the correlation between a society's
support for the mechanical arts and its political and
intellectual achievements.(14)

   "The same age," writes Hume, "which produces great
philosophers and politicians, renowned generals and poets,
usually abounds with skillful weavers and ship-carpenters."

   Describing Hume's model of the role "arte" plays in the
evolution of social progress, Johnson writes:

   "The metamorphosis of society from a rude and simple state to
a refined and polished one was clear: first came the development
of `art' whereby the products of the earth were worked up; this
increased the productivity of a nation's land and its population,
thereby permitting the population to expand further; the existing
`art' and its cumulative progress increased the number of
occupations (together with the incomes derived therefrom);
lastly, higher incomes and higher levels of comfort `gave birth
to new desires'." (from Predecessors, pg.276-7)

   Hume maintains that a vibrant intellectual environment is the
product, not the cause of social support for mechanical invention
and the mastery of mechanical techniques. "By means of the
`arts'," he writes, "the minds of men, being once roused from
their lethargy, are put into fermentation, turn themselves on all
sides and carry improvements into every art and science." ("Of
Refinement in the Arts," in Writings on Economics, pg.22) Thus
every area of human thought is affected by the development of
"arte", every area becomes subject to scientific analysis. By
example, Hume shows how social support for technology and
mechanical invention will lead to more productive means of
farming as the farmer will then subject agriculture to analysis
and observation and, as Hume writes:

  "When a nation abounds in manufactures and mechanic arts, the
  proprietors of land, as well as the farmers, study agriculture
  as a science, and redouble their industry and attention.... By
  this means, land furnishes a great deal more of the necessaries
  of life...."
                     ("Of Commerce," in Writings on Economics,"
                     pg.11 [Johnson ref. pg.271])

  Thus attention to the mechanical world stimulates ferment in
all other intellectual areas. As Hume explains in his essay, "Of
Refinement in the Arts":

   "In times when industry and the arts flourish, men are kept in
   perpetual occupation, and enjoy, as their reward, the
   occupation itself, as well as those pleasures which are the
   fruit of their labor. The mind acquires new vigor; enlarges
   its powers and faculties; and by an assiduity in honest
   industry, both satisfies its natural appetites, and prevents
   the growth of unnatural ones, which commonly spring up, when
   nourished by ease and idleness."
                    (Writings on Economics, pg.21)

   Similarly, there is a negative effect when people are deprived
of the ability to interact with the mechanical arts: "Banish
those arts from society, you deprive men both of action and of
pleasure; and leaving nothing but indolence in their place, you
even destroy the relish of indolence, which never is
agreeable...." (Ibid., pg.21-22)

   Hume explains how the development of the liberal arts is
dependent upon the development and support for the mechanical
arts. He writes:

   "Another advantage of industry and of refinement in the
   mechanical arts, is, that they commonly produce some
   refinements in the liberal (arts-ed)."
                             (Ibid., pg.22)

   He sees the development of the mechanical arts as the primary
activity which leads to the development of the liberal arts.
However, to develop each, he explains, attention must be paid to
the development of the other as well: "Nor can one be carried to
perfection, without being accompanied, in some degree with the
other." (Ibid.)

  "The same age," he explains, "which produces great
philosophers and politicians, renowned generals and poets,
usually abounds with skillful weavers, and shipcarpenters. We
cannot reasonably expect," Hume observes, "that a piece of
woollen cloth will be brought to perfection in a nation, which is
ignorant of astronomy, or where ethics are neglected. The spirit
of the age affects all the arts....Profound ignorance," he
writes, "is totally banished, and men enjoy the privilege of
rational creatures, to think as well as to act, to cultivate the
pleasures of the mind as well as those of the body." (Ibid.)

   Not only does the fermentation stimulated by mechanical
activity and invention lead to a renaissance in intellectual
development, but it also affects sociability. Hume writes: "The
more these refined arts advance, the more sociable men become:
nor is it possible that, when enriched with science, and
possessed of a fund of conversation, they should be contented to
remain in solitude, or live with their fellow citizens in that
distant manner, which is peculiar to ignorant and barbarous
nations. They flock into cities; love to receive and communicate
knowledge; to show their wit or their breeding; their taste in
conversation or living, in clothes or furniture...." (Ibid.)

   This ferment leads to the development of social organizations,
Hume explains:

   "Particular clubs and societies are everywhere formed: Both
   sexes meet in an easy and sociable manner: and the tempers of
   men, as well as their behavior, refine apace. So that, beside
   the improvements which they receive from knowledge and the
   liberal arts, it is impossible but they must feel an increase
   of humanity, from the very habit of conversing together and
   contribute to each other's pleasure and entertainment."
                                  (Ibid., pg.22-23)

  He summarizes, "Thus industry, knowledge, and humanity, are
linked together by an indissoluble chain...." (Ibid., pg.23)

   People privately benefit from the development of technology
and industry; more importantly, a public benefit is achieved.
"But industry, knowledge, and humanity," Hume writes, "are not
advantageous in private life alone: They diffuse their beneficial
influence on the public, and render the government as great and
flourishing as they make individuals happy and generous. The
increase and consumption of all the commodities, which serve to
the ornament and pleasure of life, are advantageous to society;
because, at the same time that they multiply those innocent
gratifications to individuals, they are a kind of storehouse of
labor, which, in the exigencies of state, may be turned to public
service." (Ibid., pg.23-24)

   Not only did Hume show how attention to and support for the
mechanical arts leads to an increase in social wealth, he also
contends that the form of government, and the development of the
political structures of the society are dependent on the level of
development of the industry in that society. He writes:

   "Laws, order, police, discipline; these can never be carried
to any degree of perfection, before human reason has refined
itself by exercise, and by an application to the more vulgar
arts, at least of commerce and manufacture. Can we expect, that a
government will be well modelled by a people, who know not how to
make a spinning-wheel, or to employ a loom to advantage?" (Ibid.,
pg.24)

   Similarly, Hume connects bad government with ignorance in the
mechanical arts, "Not to mention that all ignorant ages are
infested with superstition, which throws the government off its
bias, and disturbs men in the pursuit of their interest and
happiness." (Ibid.)

   Furthermore, Hume relates the development of political liberty
to the development of technology. He writes, "The liberties of
England, so far from decaying since the improvements in the arts,
have never flourished so much as during that period." (Ibid.,
pg.27)

   He finds a symbiotic relationship between the progress of the
mechanical arts [i.e. `arte'- ed] in a society and the
possibility of good government. In societies which encourage the
mechanical arts to develop, larger sections of the population
have the time and know how to fashion a more democratic and
responsive government. Where technological development is
discouraged, a greater part of the population has to spend all of
its time producing for subsistence and has no time to devote to
oversight of the government. Hume explains:

   "If we consider the matter in a proper light, we shall find,
   that a progress in the arts is rather favorable to liberty,
   and has a natural tendency to preserve, if not produce a free
   government. In rude unpolished nations, where the arts are
   neglected, all labor is bestowed on the cultivation of the
   ground; and the whole society is divided into two classes,
   proprietors of land, and their vassals or tenants. The latter
   are necessarily dependent and fitted for slavery and
   subjection; especially where they possess no riches, and are
   not valued for their knowledge in agriculture; as must always
   be the case where the arts [i.e. mechanical arts - ed] are
   neglected."
                          (Ibid., pg.28)

  He observes that in a land based society, tyranny is the norm:

   "The former naturally erect themselves into petty tyrants; and
   must either submit to an absolute master, for the sake of
   peace and order; or if they will preserve their independence,
   like the ancient barons, they must fall into feuds and
   contests among themselves, and throw the whole society into
   such confusion, as is perhaps worse than the most despotic
   government."
                           (Ibid.)

   Not only was Hume a proponent of public support for
technological development, he also maintained that increasing the
wealth available to all strata of the population was beneficial
to industrial development. He observed that increasing the share
of the social wealth, and even of the luxury available to poorer
sections of society makes possible more democratic political
institutions. "But where luxury nourishes commerce and industry,"
he writes, "the peasants, by a proper cultivation of the land
become rich and independent; while the tradesmen and merchants
acquire a share of the property, and draw authority and
consideration to that middling rank of men, who are the best and
firmest basis of public liberty. These submit not to slavery,
like the peasants, from poverty and meanness of spirit; and
having no hopes of tyrannizing over others, like the barons, they
are not tempted for the sake of that gratification, to submit to
the tyranny of their sovereign. They covet equal laws, which may
secure their property, and preserve them from monarchial, as well
as aristocratical tyranny." (Ibid., pg.28-9)

   Thus he traces the development of the government in England
attributing changes to the level of technological development of
the nation's industry.

   Hume describes how the House of Commons in England evolved
from the growth and expansion of industry:

   "The lower house is the support of our popular government; and
   all the world acknowledges, that it owed its chief influence
   and consideration to the increase of commerce, which threw
   such a balance of property into the hands of the commons. How
   inconsistent then is it to blame so violently a refinement in
   the arts, (i.e. mechanical arts -ed.) and to represent it as
   the bane of liberty and public spirit!"
                          (Ibid., pg.29)

   Hume's defense of technology against its detractors has a
familiar ring. His writings represent a criticism of those who
dismiss the benefits of the computer because of a supposed loss
of privacy or increase in the potential for government control
over the lives of its citizens. Hume's writings challenge these
efforts to blame the computer for such problems and instead they
point an arrow to the democratic achievements of the last part of
the 20th century that are the result of computer technology.

  One of the most exciting of these achievements is the
development of what is known as Usenet News, a worldwide computer
conferencing network that makes possible democratic and
uncensored debate and communication on thousands of subjects for
computer users around the world. Hume's discovery that "arte"
(i.e. the development and support of the mechanical arts) leads
to the possibility of a more democratic set of institutions and
then to the ability to preserve those institutions is being
demonstrated by some of the dramatic applications that have de-
veloped as a result of the widespread use of computer technology.

   Johnson's discussion of "arte", the writings of Plato,
Aristotle, Petty, Defoe, and others, and the essays David Hume
wrote on the question of "arte", provide a theoretical
foundation to understand the important advance represented by
Usenet News.

NOTES (Part 1)

1. "Art", in The Encyclopedia: Selections, edited and translated
by Stephen J. Gendzier, N.Y., 1967, pg.60. A modern example of
such arte is provided by Carl Malamud in Exploring the Internet
(N.J., 1992), pg.100. He writes: "The system takes raw timber and
figures out the most efficient way to saw up the log to produce
the most lumber. In an economy where 30 to 40 percent of GNP is
based on forestry, this system proved quite popular."

2. From "Protagoras", in the Works of Plato, vol I, The Franklin
Library, Penn, 1979, pg.81.

3. Aristotle's Selected Works, translated by Hippocrates G.
Apostle and Lloyd P. Gerson, 1986, pg.676.

4. Ibid., Nicomachean Ethics, 1140a 6-23.

5. "A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions", in The Economic
Writings of Sir William Petty, edited by Charles Hull, vol I,
pg.68.

6. "History of Trade", Petty Papers, vol I, London, 1927, pg.211.

7. "Political Arithmetick", The Economic Writings, vol. I,
pg.249.

8. Ibid., pg.249-250.

9. "Verbum Sapienti", The Economic Writings, vol I, pg.118.

10. "Political Arithmethic", The Economic Writings, vol I,
pg.256.

11. "The Political Anatomy of Ireland", The Economic Writings,
vol I, Works, pg.182.

12. "Political Arithmetick", The Economic Writings, pg.270 and
271.

13. A Plan of English Commerce, 1730, Augustus Kelley reprint
edition, N.Y., pg.36.

14. These essays are from Political Discourses, [Edinburgh,
1752]. Several of the essays have been reprinted in D. Hume,
Writings on Economics, (ed. E. Rotwein [1955] Madison, 1970
reprint).