Society and meta-levels
Mar. 25th, 2007 02:00 pmIt occurred to me, while walking home through a building site, just how complicated our society has become.
The concept which struck me was this - I work as a tester for a company which produces software which people use to make using a piece of someone else' software easier, the other piece of software in turn mostly being used as the back end to some other kind of application software, which is usually something used in the administration of some actual productive activity. Despite being several meta-layers down from anything which directly relates to actual physical production or processing of Stuff, I make an excellent living doing this.
It strikes me as quite strange and unsettling that our corner of the world has enough overproduction to allow me to do this, especially while some people are still scratching in the dirt for a living, with basically no infrastructure supporting their efforts.
The concept which struck me was this - I work as a tester for a company which produces software which people use to make using a piece of someone else' software easier, the other piece of software in turn mostly being used as the back end to some other kind of application software, which is usually something used in the administration of some actual productive activity. Despite being several meta-layers down from anything which directly relates to actual physical production or processing of Stuff, I make an excellent living doing this.
It strikes me as quite strange and unsettling that our corner of the world has enough overproduction to allow me to do this, especially while some people are still scratching in the dirt for a living, with basically no infrastructure supporting their efforts.