Tom Walker wrote:
A lot of the "good old days" building code regulations
were weakened in Vancouver and many entrepreneurs saw through and
exploited
> the opportunities. The result? Leaky condos and lots of SLIME MOLD.
> Now if
> Bob would explain to the purchasers of those moldy condos that they
> are
> dwelling in SPONTANEOUS ORDER and don't really have a damp, smelly,
> unhealthy and expensive PROBLEM on their hands I'm sure they would be
> a lot
> happier.
>
Eva Durant wrote:
> 10.Without a central controller, a flexible and efficient use of
> resources spontaneously emerges from buying and selling among
> independent agents.
>
Independent agents?? I think whoever is the author, I suggest
the re-sit of the exam.
The above comments reflect what is amiss with the present economic
system but say nothing about the system which may be emerging, beyond
perhaps implying it'll be more of the same.
We should value those thinkers who attempt to get a handle on the new
system by exploring new metaphors and their implications.
The Agricultural Revolution involved taking the existing natural
environment and programming it to ensure a regular supply of food and
other products of the soil at selected sites. Land became a
wealth-producing resource and subsequently the property of an
aristocracy. The measurement of land was facilitated by geometry. The
accumulated wealth provided the capital to underwrite the Industrial
Revolution which greatly increased the supply of goods by locating
factories at selected sites. The measurement of the dynamics of
production required calculus Speedy and cheap transportation (based on
fossil fuels) encouraged global trade to benefit from comparative
advantage. A further increase in leisure time and wealth supported the
formalization of research, invention and innovation, activities also
spurred on by large-scale warfare. National censuses generated massive
blocks of data whose analysis was enabled by matrix algebra. The need
for timeliness in processing such masses of data was solved by the
computer. Now, just as the Agricultural Revolution led to programming
the natural environment to sustain an urbanized (centralized)
population, so the emerging Digital Revolution may be marked by the
programming of the industrial environment to sustain a decentralized
population. Complementing transportation, however, is now a
communication system (increasingly digitally based) which appears
destined to ensure global access to the knowledge necessary to the
support of the decentralized population at a uniformly high standard of
living. This population will draw its sustenance from the industrial
environment just as a primitive population drew upon the natural (seas,
soils) environment. But now to massive numbers and the speed of light
must be added rapid, if not convulsive (intra-generational) change,
leading us to seek the insights of catastrophe theory, chaos theory,
fuzzy logic and multimedia (sound, video, graphics, geographical
information systems (GIS)) based methods of pattern recognition.
It is probably true that the transnational corporations which are
building the infrastructure of the emerging system will fade away as
they become increasingly irrelevant. The present system of nation-states
appears destined for a similar fate.
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http://publish.uwo.ca/~mcdaniel/
