Machine ageism

Pat Kane (Perspective, 26 January) exemplifies the hypocritical stance of most people in that, as a front man for a successful band, he is more difficult to replace than, say, a jobbing session musician.

And yet a drum machine can’t tell you if you’re over-engineering a track while a good musician can.

There’s a similarity that smacks of self-interest. It reminds me of the famous quote: “First they came for the Jews but I wasn’t a Jew so I did nothing…”

Self-interest in our modern life trumps all other paths because it is the self-interested who are the king makers; they are the rich and powerful elite who can treat people like commodities as they build yet more riches – and most people in society are encouraged to emulate them.

Sometimes under our illusion of so-called democracy, journalists think by writing an article such as Pat Kane’s on the impact of robots on the workforce or others like the effect on humanity as the 1 per cent ravage the planet’s resources, they are somehow doing something about it; they aren’t.

As someone who has been on the receiving end of what “cost cutting” technology does to society, it won’t be a Terminator-like “Rise of the Machines” we’ll need to fear; it’s more likely to be a desperate act from the chronically poor, disadvantaged and disillusioned that will either wipe us out or cure us.

D Cruickshanks

Weavers Crescent

Kirkcaldy