Reader Connection

Intelligence and Emotions

I am writing in response to your July editorial "Post Office Parable." You brought up a very good point -- technologists designing equipment to replace human decisions. 1) There are an incredible amount of decisions that machines could and should make. In many areas, we need more of it. 2) There are an incredible amount of decisions that machines should not make. As a race, we don't have the training and general intelligence to apply points one or two properly. So, just pray for the least amount of harm while allowing innovation to occur. Now that's a difficult balance, isn't it? Competition encourages a fast pace. Forget intelligence. When machines have emotions, the world will really change. Actually, when more Americans have more good emotions, heaven starts to be more evident.

-- Vern Bunch, Boulder, CO

Another Disney Fan

Great article on Disney 101 in the April Up Front section of Designfax! Were you allowed to tour the inside of the Disney facilities? I have been dreaming of doing this for years.

"Do things and make things which will give pleasure to people in new and amusing ways." --WD

-- Mario Mancini, Pittsburgh, PA

[Editor's Note: Yes, the NFPA group learned all about Walt's mantra of "What more can I do?" during an "Innovations in Action" tour.

Windows to the World

I am writing in response to your Layer One (June '99) "Engineers Do Make a Difference." For me, the best part of being an engineer is that for the past 21 years I have been involved with the design, development and manufacture of medical products that directly improve and sustain patients' lives. I agree that as a society we need to do more to open the eyes of our nation's students to the challenges and opportunities that await them. Far too many kids go through school without a clue as to how, when, where or why they will ever apply what they are supposed to have learned. I feel this is because they don't have a clear picture of what is out there in the real world. For this reason I collect all the free publications I can find such as Designfax, Machine Design, Design News, etc. and give them to school administrators to share with their staff and students. The first time I did this they told me they thought the material would be over the heads of the teachers, let alone the students. At the next month's meeting they came asking for more because of the excitement the first batch caused. That box of old magazines opened so many windows for the teachers and students alike. As a society we owe it to the students in our schools, and to the continued growth of our nation to keep opening those windows to the real world. We need to do this as early in the education process as possible and to keep doing it as long as necessary.

-- Chuck Coleman,
San Jose, CA

Taking Responsibility

Richard Mandel is to be commended for his radical idea that each one of us should take responsibility for our actions and the actions of our loved ones. (Up Front, June '99) For too long the media has fed us the lie that it's not our fault. It was my teacher's fault or my parents' fault or the government's fault. Do all you can to spread this philosophy as far as you can, and perhaps the United States will once again become the truly great nation it used to be.

-- Walt Beardsley, Kingston, VA