WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE AN AMISH/1954 IN THIS YEAR 2000?

I note in another file at this Website that the TECHNOLOGY of VOTING and VOTE-COUNTING has been described in TV News as basically that of the year 1954. This means that it has its roots in THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION fomented by European Monks in the 12th Century. That it has prototypes on Amish farms in Lancaster County of Pennsylvania.

Would you like

  1. to drive a car in 2000 with the engineering of 1954?
  2. to watch TV in 2000 on sets with the engineering of 1954?
  3. be treated medically in 2000 at th medical level of 1954?
  4. have your checks written with 1954 poorly maintained machines?
  5. have the banks keep your account with 1954 poorly maintained machines?
  6. would you want to be billed by 1954 poorly maintained machines?
  7. would you wish your CREDIT RECORD to be maintained by 1954 poorly maintained machines?
  8. would you want repairs to to be made on your house or whatever with tools of 1954?
  9. would all businesses want to have their clerical work handled by 1954 poorly maintained machines?
No? Then why do you wish your precious CITIZENSHIP to be poorly maintained by "1954 technology"?
Do you realize that all those year-2000 improvements you opt for above might be at an even higher level if AMERICAN CITIZENS had a better voice in all the proceedings?

I'll cite a critical example, as one who (in December, 2000) lost his dear wife of 52 years to matastatic cancer, after days of partially relieved pain.

We have CatScan, MRI, non-invasive surgergy, etc., because The Medical Profession asked for these benefits from electronic engineers.

But it was only a year ago that PAIN became included in "the vital signs" assessed of patients. And only a short time before that, doctors changed the default opinion that LITTLE BABIES CANNOT FEEL PAIN! Why these and similar judgments?

Because doctors say that "pain is subjective". Meaning that they haven't done their logico-philosophical homework, in particular what David Hume taught us.

Who was David Hume? Among other accomplishments, David Hume (1711-1776) wrote some of Adam Smith's "Bible of Capitalism", The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, the year of our "Declaration of Independence".

In his "Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding" (1753), David Hume taught us that EVERYTHING we "know" has a SUBJECTIVE COMPONENT. It is SUBJECTIVE to believe that THE SUN WILL RISE TOMORROW, because WE CANNOT PROVE IT. David Hume showed that any such "proof" is either CIRCULAR or INFINITE IN ITS INDUCTIONS!

As a mathematician, I tell you that it is SUBJECTIVE to "see" a CIRCLE or a STRAIGHT LINE. After the best instrument available has drawn these, the best microscope available detects NONCIRCULARITY, NONSTRAIGHTNESS! Thus, doctors should know that THE BEST MEASUREMENTS OF PHYSICISTS AND ENGINEERS HAVE SUBJECTIVE COMPONENTS! And this SUBJECTIVITY resides in the medical instruments doctors use, including those long used.

My point involves great progress in MRI scanning of BRAIN PROCESSES. Called magnetoencephalography (MEG) [improving the long used but limited, electroencephalography (EEG)], MEG measurements rely on the rapidly changing magnetic field generated by electrical activity within the conscious brain, and "unconscious" might be easier.

Given this (or improvements I may not know about), I believe that an electronic MEASURING INSTRUMENT could be devised to make significant MEASUREMENTS OF PAIN!

Why don't no attempts to MEASURE PAIN? Is this BECAUSE DOCTORS HAVE NOT ASKED FOR IT, arguing "subjectivity"? Because WE CITIZENS HAVE NOT ASKED FOR IT?

When asking for state-of-art voting facilities, we could also ask for state-of-art facilities in other critical functions of our daily life.