You, Robot.

A couple of years back, Jay Ruskey, developer of the "Stak Block" -- a wonderful way to reduce a huge source of worldwide carbon emissions by turning waste rice straw into building blocks (BTW, someone needs to go and make a few million dollars selling this to the Indian government) -- told me of a conversation he had when presenting his technology in China. From the US perspective, a major selling point was that the machinery they had developed, and the newer machinery that was under development, would increasingly reduce the manpower needed in the production of Stak Blocks. The Chinese representative protested, saying, "No, no, we want more people needed to do it, not less." Where the US view was looking to more efficiency and profits, the Chinese view was looking to social stability. Last week I attended a talk given by General Stanley McChrystal at the Westmont University President's breakfast.