Some men find God in nature, others place the Divinity in a different type of Grand Canyon. Many have had enough of pretty faces. They hardly even notice them. Beauty is not anything. They are too busy looking for something wore than what they saw last week. And perhaps that is what is what is wrong with society. No longer do most people look for things that are ascetically pleasing. They are looking for negative ways of release and projecting emotions and insecurities to make themselves feel better. Their only interest in other people is to see some disgrace that they have yet witnesses. A man down and out on his luck, a success woman who is beautiful that they can make feel insecure, a slave graveling for a pay check, someone from Asia waiting in line to become the next Ms. America when her citizenship is permitted. All these are good enough to make fun of for a momentary diversion, but then they must move on, searching for the next golden moment to exploit. It is best to keep looking, rather than pausing to consider what all this sinful behavior means. If the theologians are correct, and our bodies are only the ephemeral vessels of our eternal souls, then is not sullying other people a porous thing, allowing seepage of cruel rot from one’ mind to become the permanent life force inside? Their souls may be corroded to the point of damnation everlasting. Life for many is about humiliating others. Their mouths have become sphincters with a wriggling mouth lizard. After all, slander is all in fun! Unable to find sufficiently degraded specimens in the community, the sick thriller seeker moves on to other targets. Denigrating everyone individual with conduct disorder comes upon. One sees slavering prostration of offense on others as more than a national pastime; it is the new America godhead. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

I recently had one of my most memorable counselling experience. We were holding a mission when a young man came to me and unburdened himself. His case was so typical that I told him at once that either he or his family had been engaging in occult practices. He admitted this freely and what he went on to confess left a deep impression on my mind. This will in no way break any seal of confession, as the man himself asked me to use his experience wherever possible to warn people of the dangers of occultism. Let us begin the story, then. Even as a child the young man had suffered from depression and had had thoughts of suicide and other psychic disorders. From his early years he had heard noises during the night and had sometimes witnessed ghost-like appearances, which had caused rustling and whistling noises. A psychiatrist would perhaps diagnose these experiences as psychoneurosis, but this would not explain the cause of the disturbances. However, when one went into the family history the source became clear. The young man’s great-grandmother had been a magic charmer. She had healed both animals and people by means of her charms. In addition to this she had also belonged to a spiritistic circle which practised communication with departed spirits. It was her involvement with occult phenomena that brought about the tragic downfall of the family. The magic practices of the great-grandmother had been passed down to her son and daughter, who in turn had charmed both animals and people. Others were warned to stay away from the because they “might ask you out,” which means you may become enthralled by their presence and want a relationship because once you get their attention, they seem so charming and innocent and caring and attentive. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

They had also carried on communication with the dead, and had practised the use if a pendulum and the laying of cards as a means of fortune-telling. They both died in a terrible way. The woman had at night seen ghost in her room, and she had the feeling that evil spirits were forever trying to keep her mouth and nose shut. This continued for many years and finally she had been committed to an asylum. Since she was not really mentally ill though, she was released after six months. Her brother later died in terrible agony in spite of the fact that he had asked that all his magic books be burned or thrown out of the house. He had even asked for a Bible to read, but he was not able to understand it. When he finally died in great pain an obnoxious, he was greatly missed. The grandchildren were no better off. One granddaughter used to have fits of frenzy in which she threw furniture around or sometimes lay down in the street screaming almost unbearably. She too was committed to an asylum. Another granddaughter heard the already mentioned sound of knocking during the night, and she was so emotionally disturbed that one day she suffered death by suicide, with two of her children, by jumping off a cliff with them. A grandson became a medium for a spiritistic séance, and he too suffered from a persecution mania and finally ended up in a mental home. Among the great-grandchildren, one girl continued the card-laying and charming tradition and later died when she was quite young. Her family asserts that she still haunts the house in which they live in the form of a poltergeist. It was one of the brothers of this girl who had come to me for counselling. He told me that he was utterly convinced that all the terrible psychic disorders in his family history could be traced back to their contact with occultism. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

We see evidenced here the punishment for sin mentioned in the second commandment, “…visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.” And this is not an isolated cause. In my missionary work I have heard many similar family histories while counselling people. It is distressing to note how little is known of the powers of Satan among psychiatrists and Christian counsellors. The present atmosphere of rationalistic thought has caused these things to be regarded lightly as if they did not exist. However, if it is our desire to help people then we must take these satanic forces seriously. Man stands in the midst of a battle between Christ and Satan. When people think of Satan merely as a man with a tail and horns, and just mock at the ideas of a real devil, they make a terrible mistake and thus enable Satan to ensnare and attack his victims without hindrance. The most dangerous area of satanic seduction is magic, for it is here that people consciously participate in Satan’s work even though he hides behind a camouflage of pious ceremonies. Ronald Adam, a London electronics engineer and also a member of the Church of Satan for years, expressed a sentiment calling Satanists the “lunatic fringe of the occult.” Adam told me that he needs no group to practice his Satanism, which to him is more of a philosophy than a religion. “The essence of Satanism is material success,” he said. “Your own positive outlook gives you success, and that outlook comes from Satanic doctrine.” When told about the man’s feelings about his fellow members, LaVey, rather than expressing disapproval, said emphatically, “Those are the kind of members I want—people who can stand on their own without a bunch of slobbering idiots propping them up!” #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

LaVey claims that this is what differentiates his cult from others. Unlike other cult leaders, he does not seek to impose his “truth” on his members. He does not even profess to know the truth. “The truth never set anyone free,” he wrote in 1969. “It is only DOUBT which will bring mental emancipation.” True Satanist, he says, now need no hierarchy to tell them how to think. And once that bulwark of Satanists is formed, the older order will fall. It is difficult to say how much of this LaVey actually believes, and how much of it is rationalization to compensate for his unwillingness to deal with the inevitable personality conflicts that would accompany the building up of another organization. However, the late High Priest seemed more interested in compiling his essays for publication, transferring obscure pieces of celluloid to videotape and DVD, and playing his keyboards than he was to committing himself to administering the day-to-day needs of his flock. Although he is purposely vague when discussing membership figures, saying that the position of the players carried greater importance than the numbers, LaVey asserted that subscribers to The Cloven Hoof the church newsletter, stand at about two thousand. More significant, perhaps, is the increase report by LaVey in the membership applications since 1982. LaVey attributed the rise to the new public visibility of the church in response to the recent wave of allegation of Satanic child abuse, and theorized that the hysteria had perhaps generated a perverse result. However, will the new recruits understand that LaVey’s  brand of Satanism was the ultimate conscious alternative to hard mentality and institutionalized thought? The High Priest proclaimed: “It is a studied, contrived set of principles and exercises, designed to prevent and liberate from the contagion of mindlessness which destroys innovation. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

“Here are some reasons why it is called ‘Satanism’: It is most stimulating under that name, and self-discipline and motivation are easier under stimulating conditions. It means ‘the opposition,’ and epitomizes all symbols of non-conformity. It represents the strongest ability to turn a liability into an advantage—to turn alienation into exclusivity. In other words, the reason it’s called ‘Satanism’ is because it’s fun, it’s accurate, and it is productive.” Some of the “few good men” attracted to LaVey’s free thinking, egotistic philosophy might be able to utilize it and turn it into a source of strength. However, for the weaker-minded, turning “alienation into exclusivity” might only promote further alienation and exacerbate already existing psychological and emotional problems. Yet LaVey was optimistic that those people he sought—his underground men—would seek him out, and that when they do, society would be transformed. All that went before the grottos, the striptease acts, the carnie jive—was part of the Master Plan, LaVey insisted, like the trial-and-error procedure of programming one of his musical sequencers. “Eventually, you get the entire tune by pressing one note,” he says with a diabolical glint in his eyes. “It’s like painting by the numbers. People can’t see the picture until it’s finished.” With LaVey, it was difficult to gauge just how serious he was in making such proclamations, but Walt Harrington summed up the man when he wrote: “Anton LaVey is not a cartoon Satan. He’s far less frightening than you might imagine, because he is admittedly a carnival hustler. Yet he is still terrifying, because he touches, if not the mystical darkness, then the psychological darkness—the hate and fear—in us all. Ans because he, sadly, knows a haunting truth: Everybody wants to feel better than somebody.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

It is generally imagined that eugenics was a quack science that began with Mein Kampf and ended with the experiments of Dr. Mengele. This is not the case. “Family planning” and “genetic engineering” are the current euphemistic equivalents, as we will see, euphemism is very often a means of killing you softly, with a new song. Eugenics is the practical application of genetic theory to strengthen the genetic material of the human species (positive eugenics) or eliminate genetic dross (negative eugenics). At the turn of the century, eugenics was sold as a moral imperative. To housewives and mothers at that time, eugenics meant health-consciousness applied in a positivist science-directed manner. To social scientists, eugenics was a way to increase the quality of humanity similar to that of breeding more resilient strains of cattle. The presumed results would be auspicious: a steady increase in man’s intelligence and a decrease in crime and birth defects. Many America states took up the eugenic cudgel, passing sterilization laws for the physically unfit. By the end of the 1920s many thousands of mental defectives and violent criminals had undergone compulsory sterilization—a scientifically and legislatively sanctioned foray into the realm of preventive sociology. By the mid-1930s, however, eugenics more and more became a synonym for racism and pseudo-science, as some think that ending a pregnancy on purpose is a form of terminating a human life and age discrimination. Hostilities with Germany were increasing, and Nazi racial policy was vulnerable to Allied propaganda since Americas and British alike were threatened by intimations of Teutonic racial superiority. Great quantities of anti-Nazi tracts and books appeared, pillorying the myth of the Aryan superman. “What planet are you from? Whatcha doing to my body? Seems like science fiction. I felt it in my backbone. Your heart transmitting vibes. My system crashes one by one, two, one, two, three, four. Lovers in slow motion. Let us be unspoken (Super Human). Just keep your body close to me (Super Human). And we’re super human. Some cosmic confusion. I’m scared I will lose you (Super Human). We’re super human. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

“You’ll find someone new. Someone to love you, too. You were never really mine. We’re super human. But then you let me go. That’s okay cause I’m super human. Your power went through me once (Super Human). We were super human. We were super human babe (Super Human). Yeah, we were (Super Human). We were super human,” lyrics by Andrew Bayer featuring Asbjorn, name of song: Super Human. Many Ayrans are not racist, but they like to remind their brothers that they are a super race and understand that some of them are from different origins and that some will fall in love with some of the new people on Earth, but they are stronger together. Great quantities of anti-Nazi tracts and books appeared in the 1930s, pillorying the legend of Aryan Superman. It is ironic to note, however, that the German Population Courts were merely emulating American eugenic policy. As early as 1930, Hitler reveals to economic advisor Wagener, “I have studied with great interest the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would, in all probability, be of no value or be injurious to the racial stock.” [Otto Wagner, Hilter: Memoris of a Confidant, 1985, Yale University Press.] Eugenics=race hatred became an equation hard to shake in a country of Hun-haters. Yet in the 1920s, mainstream eugenicists were quick to distance themselves from those who, like Madison Grant and Lothrop Stoddard, promoted de Gobineau-derived theories of Nordic racial superiority. An ounce of eugenics is worth a pound of race prejudice,” wrote Professor Frank Hankins in Evolution in Modern Thought, attempting to salvage eugenic science by merging it with American melting-pot sloganeering. Hankins and fellow scientists failed to keep the flame alive. By 1940, funding for research and legal sterilizations slowed to a halt, and the eugenic ideal of a nation full of geniuses and free of imbeciles became just a fading memory. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

In the repudiation of applied genetics, however, a tyranny of a very different nature arose. Grigori Lysenko’s announcement in the late 1930s that there is no such thing as an inherited trait, that all traits are environmentally determined, paved the way for the reordering of the Russian spirit in the likeness of Joseph Stalin. Rejecting theories of inheritance made it easier for Soviet rulers to expect unswerving allegiance to heavy inoculations of communist dogma. Aldous Huxley and other science fiction writers painted pictures of eugenic/technological nightmares, of gleaming post-partum assembly lines complete with stainless steel nipples. (Later in his life, Huxley found an “unregulated” breeding process a far greater nightmare.) In the U.S.A., an environmentally-based theory of intelligence created the legal basis for lawsuits of race bias against institutions utilizing I.Q. test and the SAT in which Asian-Americans and Whites tend to be the highest scorers. Equalitarianism found its answer in Equal Opportunity programs, and not in a science which spoke about genetic advantages and disadvantages. There is no more frightening picture to the civil libertarian than the vision of a State drunk on the scripture of Social Darwinism. After WWII, in the wake of widespread anti-Nazi sentiment, UNESCO-underwritten scientists such as the anthropologist Ashley Montagu flooded the bookstores, colleges, and academics with books such as Man’s Most Dangerous Myth, a debunking expose about “fascism of the gonads.” More recently, the anti-eugenicist torch has been passed to journalist-scientists such as Stephen Jay Gould (The Mismeasure of Man), Allen Chase (The Legacy of Malthus) and Daniel Kevles (In the Name of Eugenics). Their tomes rebuke, in the tradition of American and British anti-Nazi propaganda, the moral premises—and scientific verities—of eugenics. Concludes Kevles in his book, “…the more masterful the genetic sciences have become, the more they have corroded the authority of moral custom in medical and reproductive behavior.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

UNESCO’s muddled role vis a vis eugenics—now for, now against—is worth contemplating since it describes throwing the birth process in one direction or the other for solely political purposes. G. Brock Chisholm, a former director of the World Health Organization, articulated UNESCO’s apparent aim: “What people everywhere must do is practice birth control and miscegenation in order to create one race in one World under one government. [U.S.A magazine, August 12, 1955]. A statement such as Chisholm’s demonstrates that a version of eugenics more in line with humanist ideals is exonerated under the rubric of sexual freedom and racial equality while the early eugenicists’ aims of intellectual and moral improvement of the species continue to be damned as diabolic. One of the earliest questioners was Jonathan Swift, who saw what was intended and spoke up against it in the name of the ancients and of poetry. Gulliver’s Travels is to early modern philosophy what Aristophanes’ The Clouds was to early ancient philosophy. Gulliver’s Travels is nothing but a comic statement of Swift’s preference for antiquity, casting his ancients as giants and noble horses, his modern as midgets and Yahoos. He addressed the aspect that most concern us, the establishment of the academies and universities—the Republic of Letters, to use Pierre Bayle’s expression—in the chapter entitled “A Voyage to Laputa.” Guliver, after observing modern politics in Lilliput, goes to Laputa to see modern science and its effect on life. Laputa is a flying island ruled by natural scientists. It is, of course, a parody of the British Royal Society, in Swift’s time a relatively recent association of the philosophers and scientists who had been tempted more into public and public life by modern thought. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

In this strange new land Gulliver finds a theoretical preoccupation abstracted from primary human concerns, one whose beginning point was not the human dimension, but which ends up altering it. On the Flying Island the men have one eye turned inward, the other toward the zenith. They are perfect Cartesians—one egotistical eye contemplating the self, one cosmological eye surveying the most distant things. The intermediate range, which previously was the center of concentration and defined both the ego and the pattern for the study of the stars, is not within the Laputain purview. They only studies are astronomy and music, and the World is reduced to these two sciences. The men have no contact with ordinary sense experiences. This is what permits them to remain content with their science. Communication with others outside their circle is unnecessary. Rather than making their mathematics follow the natural shapes of things, they change things so as to fit their mathematics. Their food is cut into all sorts of geometrical figures. Their admiration for woman, such as it is, is due to the resemblance of women’s various parts to specific figures. Jealousy is unknow to them. Their wives can commit adultery before their eyes without its being noticed. This absence of eroticism is connected with an absence of poetic sensibility. These scientists cannot understand poetry, and hence, in Gulliver’s view, their science cannot be a science of man. Another peculiarity of these men is described by Gulliver as follows. “What I chiefly admired, and thought altogether unaccountable, was the strong disposition I observed in them towards news and politics, perpetually inquiring into public affairs, giving their judgments in matters of state and passionately disputing every in of a party opinion. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

“I have indeed observed the same disposition among most of the mathematicians I have known in Europe, although I could never discover the least analogy between the two sciences.” Gulliver recognizes the political concern of theoretical science and doubts that it can comprehend the actual practice of politics. He also thinks the scientists have a sense of special right to manipulate politics. The Laputians’ political power rests on the new science. The Flying Island is built on the principles of physics founded by Gilbert and Newton. Applied science can open new roads to political power. This island allows the king and the nobles to live free from conspiracies by the people—in fact, free from contact with them—while still making use of them and receiving the tribute that is necessary to the maintenance and leisure of the rulers. They can crush the terrestrial cities. Their power is almost unlimited and their responsibilities nil. Power is concentrated in the hands of the rulers; hence they are not forced even by fear to develop a truly political intelligence. They require no virtue. Everything runs itself, so there is no danger that their incompetence, indifference or vice will harm them. Their island allows their characteristic deformity to grow to the point of monstrosity. Science, in freeing men, destroys the natural conditions that make them human. Hence, for the first time in history, there is the possibility of tyranny grounded not on ignorance, but on science. The actual path to nanotechnology—the one that history books will record—could emerge from any one of the research directions in physics, biochemistry, and chemistry recounted in past reports. The availability of so many good options build the confidence that some particular path will be fastest. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Several years ago, researchers at the University of Brobdingnag began work on developing a molecular manipulator. To reach this goal, a team of a dozen physicists, chemists, and protein researchers banded together (some working full time, some part time) and began the creative teamwork needed to solve the basic problems. First they needed to attach a gripper to an AFM tip. As grippers, they chose fragments of antibody molecules, the selectively sticky protein that the immune system uses to bind and identify germs. If they could get the “back” of the molecule stuck onto a tip, then the “front” could bind and hold molecular tools. (The advantage of antibody fragments was this: freedom of tool choice. Since the late 1980s, researchers had been able to generate antibodies able to bind almost any preselected molecule—or molecular tool.) They tried half a dozen methods before finding one that worked reliably. In parallel, the U. Brob AFM researchers worked on placing tips in a precise location and then holding them there with atomic accuracy for seconds at a time. This proved straightforward. They used techniques developed elsewhere during the early 1990s, adding only modest refinements. They now had their griper and a way putting it where they wanted it, but they needed a set of tools. The gripper was like the chuck of a drill, waiting to have different bits fitted into its tool-slot holder. So as the final step, the synthetic chemists on the team made a dozen different molecular tools, all identical at one end but different at the other. The similar parts all bound to the same anti-body tool-holder, slotting neatly into position. The different parts were all chemically reactive in different ways. Each of these tools could use a chemical reaction to transfer some atoms to a molecular object under construction. Developing the molecular tool kit was the toughest part of the project; it took about as much work as had gone into duplicating the palytoxin molecule back in the 1980s. None of the tasks in the project demanded the solution of a deep scientific puzzle, and none demanded the solution of a notoriously difficult engineering problem. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Each task had many possible solutions, the problem was to find a compatible set of solutions and apply them. After a few years, the solutions came together and the U. Brob research team began building new molecules by molecular manipulation. Now many teams are doing likewise. A university, a political party, a religious denomination, a judicial proceeding, even corporate board meetings are not improved by automating their operations. They are made more imposing, more technical, perhaps more authoritative, but defects in their assumptions, ideas, and theories will remain untouched. Computer technology, in other words, has not yet come close to the printing press in its power to generate radical and substantive social, political, and religious thought. If the press was, as David Riesman called it, “the gunpowder of the mind,” the computer in its capacity to smooth over unsatisfactory institutions and ideas, is the talcum powder of the mind. I do not wish to go as far as Weizenbaum in saying that computers are merely ingenious devices to fulfill unimportant functions and that the computer revolution is an explosion of nonsense. Perhaps that judgment will be in need of amendment in the future, for the computer is a technology of a thousand uses—the Proteus of machines, to use Seymour Papert’s phrase. One must note, for example, the use of computer-generated images in the phenomenon known as Virtual Reality. Putting on a set of miniature goggle-mounted screens, one may block out the real World and move through a simulated three-dimensional World which changes its components with every movement of one’s head. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

That Timothy Leary is an enthusiastic proponent of Virtual Reality does not suggest that there is a constructive future for this device. However, who knows? Perhaps, for those who can no longer cope with the real World, Virtual Reality will provide better therapy than Eliza. Wang Shiwu, a peddler in rural Anhui Province in China, used to haul his wares in a basket hoping to find customers in nearby villages and markets. It was a way of life not too different from that of peddlers or peasants a thousand years ago. Wang’s life changed in 1999. He realized then, he says, that “a wonderful opportunity had arrived.” And today Wang’s customers come to him. The wonderful opportunity was the Internet. Wang was not a geek. And, at fifty-two, he was not a kid. However, he was entrepreneurial, and before long he was surfing the Net in his home, collecting marketing information and offering it to fellow villagers free of charge. Every farmer knows the importance of timely prince information. Traditionally, sellers had to take their crop or herd to market on the bare chance that it would sell. Only then would they learn what prices were being offered—a system that severely limited their bargaining power. By supplying current price information, Wang changed all that. Wang then also offered to sell their products online. He sold the first 2 million kilograms of sweet potatoes at a higher price than that available in the local market. Before long, e-mail began pouring in, and Wang was in business. Wang’s story is told by Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, which reported enthusiastically that, as of 2001, most farmers in Anhui had access to a computer and that 1,634 towns in the province—90 percent of the total—could obtain free market information online. The province also sponsored online “trade fairs” that saw more than 100 million kilograms of grain change hands in one year alone. As of October 2019, more than 98 percent of China’s administrative villages have been connected with fiber-optic networks and 4G networks, and 99 percent of the impoverished villages had been linked with broadband internet services. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

The Internet is not just directly reducing rural poverty. It is also helping to create jobs for hundreds of thousands across China by enabling the growth of mega businesses like Alibaba and Tencent. In addition, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) estimates that 5G will create more than 8 million jobs by 2030. Thus, the whole economy is boosted, making it possible to devote extra resources to rural development. This trend will continue. What is clear is that, to date, computer technology has served to strengthen Technopoly’s hold, to make people believe that technological innovation is synonymous with human progress. And it has done so by advancing several interconnected ideas. It has, as already noted, amplified beyond all reason the metaphor of machines as humans and humans as machines. I do not claim, by the way, that computer technology originated this metaphor. One can detect it in medicine, too: doctors and patients have come to believe that, like a machine, a human being is made up of parts that function as the original did without impairing or even affecting any other part of the machine. Of course, to some degree that assumption works, but since a human being is in fact not a machine but a biological organism all of those organs are interrelated and profoundly affected by mental states, the human-as-machine metaphor has serious medical limitations and can have devastating effects. Something similar may be said of the mechanistic metaphor when applied to workers. Modern industrial techniques are made possible by the idea that a machine is made up of isolatable and interchangeable parts. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

However, in organizing factories so that workers are also conceived of as isolatable and interchangeable parts, industry has engendered deep alienation and bitterness. This was the point of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, in which he tried to show the psychic damage of the metaphor carried too far. However, because the computer “thinks” rather than works, its power to energize mechanistic metaphors is unparalleled and of enormous value to Technopoly, which depends on our believing that we are at our best when acting like machines, and that in significant ways machines may be trusted to act as our surrogates. Among the implications of these beliefs is a loss of confidence in human judgment and subjectivity. We have devalued the singular human capacity to see things whole in all their psychic, emotional and moral dimensions, and we have replaced this with faith in the powers of technical calculation. Eavesdrop on a group of CIOs at a conference, and chances are that before long you will hear their standard complaints: That they are misunderstood by top management. Bosses view them as budget-busting cost centers, whereas they believe that effective high-tech Information Systems can actually cut costs and bring in profit. Bosses are too uninformed—ignorant is the mot juste—about computers and communications to make intelligent judgments. And they are not patient enough to learn. In fact, only one CIO in thirteen actually gets to report directly to his president or chief executive officer. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

However, while CIOs may grumble, they are far from powerless. As the super-symbolic economy expands, business expenditures for knowledge-processing soar. Only a fraction of these are for computers and related information systems. However, that fraction represents enormous amounts of money. By 1988 sales of the World’s top one hundred information technology firms, according to Datamation magazine, topped the $243 billion mark. That number was projected to rise to $500 billion by 1998. However, as of 2021, the top three technology companies: Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta combined have a total revenue of $1.4 trillion. The pandemic sped up growth in the technology industry. Anyone who helps direct these purchases and allocate these funds is hardly bereft of clout. What CIOs scarcely mention, however, is that they also allocate information—the source of power for other and, not incidentally, for themselves. As soon as a company budgets mega-dollars for information technology, struggles break out as different factions try to bite a chunk off the budget. However, in addition to traditional turf and money conflict, CIOs also find themselves smack in the middle of fights over information itself. Who gets what kinds of information? Who has access to the main data bases? Who can add to that data base? What assumptions are built into the accounting? Which department or division “owns” what data? And even more important, who dictates the assumptions or models built into the software? The conflicts over such questions, while seemingly technical, clearly affect the money, status, and power of individuals. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Moreover, these conflicts escalate. As the CIO and his staff redirect flows of information, they shake existing power relations. To use the expensive new computers and networks effectively, most companies are compelled to reorganize. Major restructurings are thus set in motion—and these trigger repercussive power struggles throughout the firm. Before long, smart management, prodded by the CIO, discovers that new information technology is not just a way to cut paperwork or speed service. It can sometimes be used strategically to capture new markets, create new products, and enter entirely new fields. We have already seen Citibank selling software to travel agents in the United States of America, or Seino Transport in Japan peddling software to truckers. Such forays into new businesses begin to change the shape and mission of the organization. This, however, triggers even more dangerous power struggles in the executive suite. To complicate matters, as computers and communications fuse and networks proliferate, a new power group begins to poke its head under the managerial tent: the telecommunications managers and their staff, who often jockey with the IS people for resources and control. Should communications be subordinate to Information Systems or independent? Chief information officers thus find themselves at the vortex of many disputes, some of which lead to, or become part of revolutions at the highest level. Because of what computers commonly do, they place an inordinate emphasis on the technical processes of communication and offer very little in the way of substance. With the exception of the electrical light, there never has been a technology that better exemplifies Marshall McLuhan’s aphorism “The medium is the message.” #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

The most computer is almost all process. There are, for example, no “great computers,” as there are great writers, painters, or musicians. There are “great programs” and “great programmers,” but their greatness lies in their ingenuity either in simulating a human function or in creating new possibilities of calculation, speed, and volume. Of course, if J. David Bolter is right, it is possible that in the future computers will emerge as a new kind of book, expanding and enriching the tradition of writing technologies. Since printing created new forms of literature when it replaced the handwritten manuscript, it is possible that electronic writing will do the same. However, for the moment, computer technology functions more as a new mode of transportation than as a new means of substantive communication. It moves information—lots of it, fast, and mostly in a calculating mode. The computer, in fact, makes possible the fulfillment of Descartes’ dream of the mathematization of the World. Computers make it easy to convert facts into statistics and to translate problems into equations. And whereas this can be useful (as when the process reveals a pattern that would otherwise go unnoticed), it is diversionary and dangerous when applied indiscriminately to human affairs. So the computer’s emphasis on speed and especially its capacity to generate and store unprecedented quantities of information. In specialized contexts, the value of calculation, speed, and voluminous information may go uncontested. However, the “message” of computer technology is comprehensive and domineering. The computer argues, to put it badly, that the most serious problems confronting us at both personal and public levels require technical solutions through fast access to information otherwise unavailable. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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