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diff --git a/books/sociedade/age-of-the-smart-machine.md b/books/sociedade/age-of-the-smart-machine.md index 39c20ce..85314f4 100644 --- a/books/sociedade/age-of-the-smart-machine.md +++ b/books/sociedade/age-of-the-smart-machine.md @@ -819,6 +819,8 @@ Another form of [labor camp](/books/historia/ibm-holocaust), it's mirror image: ### Office technology as exile and integration +The whole chapter is worth reading. Some excerpts: + One afternoon, after several weeks of participant observation and discussions with clerks and supervisors, I was returning to the office from a lunch with a group of employees when two of them beckoned @@ -861,3 +863,208 @@ Another form of [labor camp](/books/historia/ibm-holocaust), it's mirror image: technology can be said to have "textualized" the organizational environment. -- 126 + + Why was it felt to be important and natural to check the ledgers? + Many of the clerks experienced a loss of certainty similar to that of the + pulp mill operators when they were deprived of concrete referents. In + the office the referent function operated at a higher level of abstraction + than in the mills. For these clerks, written words on pieces of paper + had become a concrete and credible medium-for several reasons. + First, paper is a three-dimensional object that carries sensory weight- + it can be touched; carried; folded; in short, dominated. Secondly, writ- + ing is a physical activity. The pen gives voice to the hand. Each written + word is connected to the writer both through the intellectual relation- + ship of authorship and through the immediate physical relationship of + fingers and pen. In the act of writing there is a part of the self that is + invested in and so identified with the thing written. It comes to be + experienced as an extension of the self rather than an "otherness." + This identification occurs so subtly, that it is rarely noticed until it has + been taken away. Electronic text confronts the clerk with a stark sense + of otherness. Text is impersonal; letters and numbers seem to appear + without having been derived from an embodied process of authorship. + They stand autonomously over and against the clerk who engages with + them. A benefits analyst described the sensation: + + You can't justify anything now; you can't be sure of it or prove it + because you have nothing down in writing. Without writing, you can't + remember things, you can't keep track of things, there's no reasoning + without writing. What we have now-you don't know where it comes + from. It just comes at you. + + -- 130-131 + +Concentrating on concentrating: nano-genealogy of clerical work +--------------------------------------------------------------- + +Sounds like there's a paradox between the simplification of work -- the diminishing +knowledge required to do the task -- and the increased need for concentration in +the task accomplished -- not only because it was dificult to rollback transactions, +but also because of an increased pressure to do more. + + We really did not have a need for such intensive concentration be- + fore. There are times when you are looking at the screen but you + are not seeing what is there. That is a disaster. Even when you get + comfortable with the system, you still have to concentrate; it's iust + that you are not concentrating on concentrating. You learn how to + do it, but the need doesn't go away. + + -- 131 + +Here I get a curious feeling. Which makes me get back to the origin of the term +"clerk" and "clerical work". This is what Norbert Elias tells us from his second +volume of "Civilizing Process": + + They entered this appararus by two main routes: 103 first through their growing + share of secular posts, that is, positions previously filled by nobles; and secondly + through their share of ecclesiastical poset, that is as clerks. The term _clerc_ began + slowly to change its meaning from about the end of the twelfth century onwards; + its ecclesiastical connotation receded and it referred more and more to a man who + had studied, who could read and write Latin , though it may be that the first + stages of an ecclesiastical career were for a time a prerequisite for this. Then, in + conjunction with the extension of the administrative apparatus, both the them + _clerc_ and certain kinds of university study were increasingly secularized. People + no longer learned Latin exclusively to become members of the clergy, theu also + learned it to become officials. To be sure, there were still bourgeois who entered + the king's council simply on account of their commercial or organizational + competence. But the majority of bourgeois attained the higher regions of + government through study, through knowledge of canon and Roman law. Study + became a normal means of social advancement for the sons of leading urban + strata. Bourgeois elements slowly pushed back the noble and ecclesiastical + elements in the government. The class of royal servants, of ''officials", became -- + in contrast to the situarion in Germany -- an exclusively bourgeois formation. + + [103] https://www.worldcat.org/title/philippe-le-long-roi-de-france-1316-1322-le-mecanisme-du-gouvernement/oclc/489867779 + + -- 332 + +The same excerpt but from the portuguese translation: + + Eles ingressaram na máquina do governo através de dois caminhos principais:103 + inicialmente, graças a sua crescente participação em cargos seculares, isto é, + em posições antes ocupadas por nobres e, depois, devido a sua participação em + postos antes eclesiásticos, isto é, como amanuenses. O termo _clerc_ começou a + mudar lentamente de significado a partir de fins do século XII, recuando para + um plano inferior sua conotação eclesiástica e aplicando-se mais e mais a + indivíduos que haviam estudado, que podiam ler e escrever latim, embora possa + ser verdade que os primeiros estágios de uma carreira eclesiástica fossem, por + algum tempo, precondição para isso. Em seguida, em paralelo com a ampliação da + máquina administrativa, o termo _clerc_ e certos tipos de estudos universitários + foram cada vez mais secularizados. As pessoas não aprendiam latim + exclusivamente para se tornarem membros do clero, mas também para ingressar na + carreira de servidores públicos. Para sermos exatos, também havia burgueses que + passavam a integrar o conselho do rei simplesmente devido a sua competência + comercial ou organizacional. A maioria dos burgueses, porém, chegava aos altos + escalões do governo através do estudo, do conhecimento dos cânones e do Direito + Romano. O estudo tornou-se um meio normal de progresso social para os filhos + dos principais estratos urbanos. Lentamente, elementos burgueses suplantaram os + elementos nobres e eclesiásticos no governo. A classe de servidores reais, ou + “funcionários”, tornou-se —, em contraste com a situação vigente nos + territórios germânicos — uma formação social exclusivamente burguesa. + + -- Da seção 22 da parte "Distribuição das Taxas de Poder no Interior da Unidade + de Governo: Sua Importância para a Autoridade Central: A Formação do “Mecanismo + Régio”" + +The development both of the term _clerc_ and the change this activity took deserves +some attention. Some brainstorming: + +* In a sense, the clergy lives in a form of isolation, of exile. +* Or, in another sentence, a clerc was someone who renounced the sensorial and the + material word to live a monastic life. What I just said? + + monastery (n.) + + c. 1400, from Old French monastere "monastery" (14c.) and directly from Late + Latin monasterium, from Ecclesiastical Greek monasterion "a monastery," from + monazein "to live alone," from monos "alone" (from PIE root *men- (4) "small, + isolated"). With suffix -terion "place for (doing something)." Originally + applied to houses of any religious order, male or female. + + -- https://www.etymonline.com/word/monastery + + men- (4) + + Proto-Indo-European root meaning "small, isolated." + + It forms all or part of: malmsey; manometer; monad; monarchy; monastery; + monism; monist; monk; mono; mono-; monoceros; monochrome; monocle; monocular; + monogamy; monogram; monolith; monologue; monomania; Monophysite; monopoly; + monosyllable; monotony. + + It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: + Greek monos "single, alone," manos "rare, sparse;" Armenian manr "thin, + slender, small." + + -- https://www.etymonline.com/word/*men-?ref=etymonline_crossreference + + Noun + + monastērium n (genitive monastēriī); second declension + + (Medieval Latin) monastery quotations ▼ + (Medieval Latin) cell; area used by a monk. + + -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monasterium + + From Old French monastere, from Latin monastērium, from Ancient Greek + μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “hermit's cell”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”). + Doublet of minster. + + -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monastery + +Clerical work can be considered those isolated, repetitive, monotonous tasks +separated from the daily, communal life. + +Curiously enough, the `*men-` root also means: + + men- (1) + + Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to think," with derivatives referring to + qualities and states of mind or thought. + + It forms all or part of: admonish; Ahura Mazda; ament; amentia; amnesia; + amnesty; anamnesis; anamnestic; automatic; automaton; balletomane; comment; + compos mentis; dement; demonstrate; Eumenides; idiomatic; maenad; -mancy; + mandarin; mania; maniac; manic; mantic; mantis; mantra; memento; mens rea; + mental; mention; mentor; mind; Minerva; minnesinger; mnemonic; Mnemosyne; + money; monition; monitor; monster; monument; mosaic; Muse; museum; music; + muster; premonition; reminiscence; reminiscent; summon. + + It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: + Sanskrit manas- "mind, spirit," matih "thought," munih "sage, seer;" Avestan + manah- "mind, spirit;" Greek memona "I yearn," mania "madness," mantis "one who + divines, prophet, seer;" Latin mens "mind, understanding, reason," memini "I + remember," mentio "remembrance;" Lithuanian mintis "thought, idea," Old Church + Slavonic mineti "to believe, think," Russian pamjat "memory;" Gothic gamunds, + Old English gemynd "memory, remembrance; conscious mind, intellect." + + [...] + + men- (2) + + Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to project." + + men- (3) + + Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to remain." It forms all or part of: + maisonette; manor; manse; mansion; menage; menial; immanent; permanent; remain; + remainder. + + -- https://www.etymonline.com/word/*men-?ref=etymonline_crossreference + +To think in isolation, projecting, calculating. "Automaton" shares the same root. + +We can also say tha clerical work can refer to a dedication to spiritualism or +philosophycal inquiry, freed from mundane affairs, desires an necessities. + +To be continued: + +* The monastic way is a mode of existence. But is different if someone chooses this path or is forced to it. +* Monotasking during large periods of time was enabled by civilization. Multitasking was the way if you had to pay attention all the time + for dangers to your life. See [The burn-out society](/books/sociedade/burnout-society) for discussion. It's related to the + differentiation, specialization and automation of tasks. One needs someone's else, a third-party protection to be able to abstain from + the environment and even from oneself and focus on abstract and to be able to deep reflection and medidation. +* How some contemporaneous clerical work tends more to multitasking and attention deficit. +* Any equivalent term in portuguese to "clerical work"? +* Class differentiation among both the catholic clergy and the modern monastic automated office, with high ranks of technomonks + doing the thinking (and acting-with) and the lower clerks acting like automatons (acting-on). |