Bill Joy, Samuel Johnson and E-Waste

In the Social Life of Information (SLI), the authors mention a computer scientist by the name of Bill Joy that technologies might wipe humanity out. The authors state that this view was tunnel-vision.

Today there was an article in the BCC about e-waste in India. Companies are having the very poor disassemble computer parts; these employees desparate for money are not aware of the effects of such a job as on their health:

"There should not be any lead in our blood because lead has no biological function. You and I, living in a society like this, will have about 8-10 micrograms per decilitre. Even at a level of 5 micrograms per decilitre lead can bring about DNA aberrations. And in children, anything around 10 micrograms per decilitre can bring down the IQ. Half of children in a city like Bangalore already have blood lead levels at about 10 micrograms per decilitre, which has resulted in a reduction in their intelligence quotient. We are seeing more and more cases now because more and more electronic waste is being handled by our people."

The prognostications made in the article remind me of Samuel Johnson's advice made in SLI: "Mankind needs more often to be reminded than informed." One of the reasons that is given that the Romans fell was their lead water pipes. History has a funny way of repeating itself. Will the heavy metals used in our technologies be at a cost to our global society?