Machines are fungible: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Marvin.png|450px|thumb|center|Planned obsolescence, yesterday.]] | [[File:Marvin.png|450px|thumb|center|Planned obsolescence, yesterday.]] | ||
}}[[Machines are fungible]]: you can engineer the same machine and get the same results anywhere in the world. The difference in operating cost between the same piece of machinery here and there — essentially the difference in real estate and energy inputs — is an opportunity for [[arbitrage]].<Ref>Though it might be blown out by transport costs and material qualities, not to mention variability in the [[meatware]].</ref> Machines ''are'' totally fungible. The [[meatware]] which operates it is ''not''. To be sure one can ''generalise'' about people — it is [[Unconscious bias|hard not to]] — these are [[heuristic]]s — rules of thumb, | }}[[Machines are fungible]]: you can engineer the same machine and get the same results anywhere in the world. The difference in operating cost between the same piece of machinery here and there — essentially the difference in real estate and energy inputs — is an opportunity for [[arbitrage]].<Ref>Though it might be blown out by transport costs and material qualities, not to mention variability in the [[meatware]].</ref> Machines ''are'' totally [[fungible]]. The [[meatware]] which operates it is ''not''. To be sure one can ''generalise'' about people — it is [[Unconscious bias|hard not to]] — these are [[heuristic]]s — rules of thumb, to be used provisionally and in the absence of better intelligence — and if we treat them as immutable rules on which we may rely we are asking for trouble. | ||
{{Sa}} | {{Sa}} | ||
*[[W. Edwards Deming]] | *[[W. Edwards Deming]] | ||
Latest revision as of 12:07, 22 February 2021
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Machines are fungible: you can engineer the same machine and get the same results anywhere in the world. The difference in operating cost between the same piece of machinery here and there — essentially the difference in real estate and energy inputs — is an opportunity for arbitrage.[1] Machines are totally fungible. The meatware which operates it is not. To be sure one can generalise about people — it is hard not to — these are heuristics — rules of thumb, to be used provisionally and in the absence of better intelligence — and if we treat them as immutable rules on which we may rely we are asking for trouble.