Randolph Harris II International Institute

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It is the Legal Tender that Souls Enjoy

When a child smells something he likes, his natural impulse is to taste it. This also applies to human adults, repressions notwithstanding. It is simply repression of one kind or another that keeps an adult from following up his desire to tastes an object which smells pleasant. Most repression are those which are taught, some wisely, others out of ignorance. We refrain from taking poisonous substances, because someone has told us of the consequences. In dealing with food, a cook should realize that a great deal can be told a man by his eating habits. Once his tastes are known, his food preferences can be catered to. Though it is true that a man’s heart is reached through his stomach, it is more important that he be fed the right foods, relative to his personality, than those you find the most appetizing. Like perfumery, foods that you like best are not necessarily those that he will like best. Many a poor woman has slaved over a hot cauldron, preparing what she considers to be the most delectable meal in the World, only to have it unappreciated. What is even worse, though, is to spend a lot of time on a meal, watch him eat it with apparent enthusiasm and then notice a decided coolness the next time you see him. What this often means is that he said he liked the meal to be polite. Chances are good there are more reasons why he took a powder than your cooking alone, but the wrong choice of food could have been just the nudge he needed to stay away. Had you served the perfect meal, you might have had another chance, and the next time his mood could have been conducive to your success. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

The only time you will find a man with a taste in food identical to your own will be when you have found a man who likes exactly the opposite type of woman from what you are! I have seen many aspiring brides fix a meal that is exactly to their guest’s taste using their own taste as a yardstick. These women are terribly pleased when their gentlemen friends gobble up every crumb then ask when the nest dinner will be. Mistakenly, the woman thinks she has found a man who really appreciates good food, in accordance with what she thinks good food should be. Little does she realize how well she has succeeded as a chef, but failed as an aspiring bride, until she awakens to the brutal fact that he is around only for the good food, not for her, and is not the least bit interested in anything but what she can supply him in the way of non-romantic indulgences. These chow-hounds cannot possibly get interested romantically, because so long as you have chosen the menu from your personal taste, and they like what you have selected, you have the wrong man! These cases where the woman’s ego can really get in the way, and the gals that do the most boasting about their special way of preparing a certain dish can often be spotted as the ones who fail as aspiring brides. We can easily imagine circumstances where one would wish to prevent the wasteful destruction of being used. The scorched Earth defense is but one example of a device game theorists called strategic moves. A strategic move is designed to alter the beliefs and actions of others in a direction favorable to yourself. The distinguishing feature is that the move purposefully limits your freedom of action. This can be done in an unconditional way. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

Freedom can be limited because the strategic move specifies a rule for how to respond under different circumstances. For example, a woman who cooks, until she is able to learn what he likes, she should not goof up by throwing him what she likes! Another example, many states have mandatory sentencing laws for crimes with handguns; these statutes purposefully limit judicial discretion. You might have thought that leaving options open is always preferable. However, in the realm of game theory that is no longer true. Your lack of freedom has strategic value. It changes other players’ expectations about your future responses, and you can turn this to your advantage. Others know that when you have the freedom to act, you also have the freedom to capitulate. To quote Oscar Wilde, “I can resist anything except temptation. Granted that the individual makes information available through body idiom, the question then arises as to what this information is about. We can begin to answer this question by looking at one of the most obvious types of propriety—“occasioned activity.” During any social occasion we can expect to find some activities that are intrinsically part of the occasion in the sense, for example, that a political speech is an expected part of a political rally. Such “occasioned activity” is likely to be legitimated as appropriate in social situations that form under the aegis of the corresponding social occasion, providing one basis for the common-sense notion that “there is a time and a place for everything.” However, we must then ask why a particular activity is defined as appropriate for the social occasion in the first place. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

More important, the display of properly occasioned activity seems to be only one of general forms of propriety, only one of the ways of fitting in. There is, however, one promising point about these considerations. To be engaged in an occasioned activity means to sustain some kind of cognitive and affective engrossment in it, some mobilization of one’s psychobiological resources; in short, it means to be involved in it. The term “involved” is used in two other additional sense in everyday speech: that of “commitment,” in the sense of having made oneself liable and responsible for certain actions; and that of “attachment,” in the sense of vesting one’s feelings and identification in something. Because of this ambiguity I have elsewhere used the term “engagement.” Further, by asking of any piece of obligatory situational behavior what it conveys about the allocation of involvement of the actor, we find that a limited number of themes occurs, and that each theme is expressed through many different aspects of behavior. In brief, by translating concrete obligatory acts into terms of expressed involvement, we have a way of showing the functional equivalence of aspects of such diverse phenomena as dress, stance, facial expression, and task activity. Underneath apparent differences, we shall be able to glimpse a common structure. To analyze situational proprieties, then, it will be necessary to turn to an analysis of the social regulations that determine the individual’s conceptions and allocations of involvement. The first thing to be noted about “involvement in situations” is the terminology ambiguity of this phrase. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

I mean to speak now only of situated involvements, those sustained within the situation, whereas the phrase “involvement in the situation” has this meaning and also a more circumscribed one, referring to ways in which the individual may have somehow give himself up to the situation as a whole and its gathering, possessing thus a situational involvement. I propose to use the term “involvement within the situation” to refer to the way the individual handles his situated activities, and will refrain for the moment from using the phrase “involvement in the situation” at all. The involvement is a matter of inward feeling. Assessment of involvement must and does rely on some kind of outward expression. It is here that we can begin to analyze the effect of the body idiom, for it is an interesting fact that just as bodily activities seem to be particularly well designed to spread their information throughout a whole social situation, so also these signs seem well designed to provide information about the individual’s involvement. Just as the individual finds that one must convey the right thing, so also one finds that while present to others one will inevitably convey information about the allocation of one’s involvement, and that expression of a particular allocation of one’s involvement, and that expression of a particular allocation is obligatory. Instead of speaking instead of an “involvement idiom: and of rules regarding the allocation of involvement. Since the involvement idiom of a ground appears to be a learned conventional thing, we must anticipate one real difficulty in cross-cultural or even cross-subcultural studies. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

The same general type of gathering in different cultures may be organized on the basis of different involvement obligations. The audience of a dramatic production in many Far Eastern societies, for example, is required to exhibit less sustained attentiveness and single-mindedness than the audience of many dramatic productions in American society. However, entirely apart from this kind of difference, it is the case that the same behavioral cue in one society may by convention carry different involvement implications in another. Thus the members of one religious group may show reverent orientation to the House of the Lord by baring the head and the members of another by taking care to cover it. When a difference in situational conduct is found between two cultures, or in the same culture over time, it becomes a complicated matter to determine what part of this discrepancy reflects a difference in the conventional idiom for expressing the underlying involvement, and what part reflects a difference in this involvement itself. If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they actually go insane to get it, imagine what miracle you and I can achieve by giving people honest appreciation this side of insanity. People like Charles Schwab become rich because of their ability to arouse enthusiasm among their people. The greatest assets some people possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement. There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticism from superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. If I like thing, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

In my wide association in life, meeting with many and great people in various parts of the World, I have yet to find the person, however great or exalted one’s situation, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than one would ever do under a spirit of criticism. When a study was made a few years ago on runaway wives, what do you think was discovered to be the main reason the wives ran away? It was “lack of appreciation.” And I would bet that a similar study made of runaway husbands would come out the same way. A member of one of our classes told of a request made by his wife. She and a group of other women in her church were involved in a self-improvement program. She asked her husband to help her by listing six things he believed she could do to help her become a better wide. He reported to the class: “I was surprised by such a request. Frankly, it would have been easy for me to list six things I would like to change about her—my Heavens, she could have listed a thousand things she would like to change about me—but I did not. I said to her, ‘Let me think about it and give you an answer in the morning.’ The next morning I got up very early and called the florist and had them send six red roses to my wife with a note saying: ‘I cannot think of six things I would like to change about you. I love you the way you are.’ When I arrived home that evening, who do you think greeted me at the door: That is right. My wife! She was almost in tears. Needless to say, I was extremely glad I had not criticized her as she had requested. #RandolphHarris 7 of22

“The following Saturday at church, after she had reported the results of her assignment, several women with whom she had been studying came up to me and, ‘That was the most considerate thing I have ever heard.’ It was then I realized the power of appreciation. There is nothing some people need as much as nourishment of self-esteem. We nourish the bodies of our children and friends and employees, but how seldom do we nourish their self-esteem? We provide them with roast beef and potatoes to build energy, but we neglect to give them kind words of appreciation that would sing in their memories for years like the music of the morning stars. Sincere appreciation can change a person’s life. Some readers are saying right now as they read these lines: “Oh, phooey! Flattery! Bear oil! I have tried that stuff. It does not work—not with intelligent people.” Of course flattery seldom works with discerning people. It is shallow, selfish and insincere. It ought to fail and it usually does. True, some people are so hungry, so thirsty, for appreciation that they will swallow anything, just as a starving man will eat grass and fishworms. Even Queen Victoria was susceptible to flattery. Flattery is counterfeit, and like counterfeit money, it will eventually get you into trouble if you pass it to someone else. The difference between appreciation and flattery? One is sincere, and the other is insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned. If we stopped thinking about ourselves for a while and begin to think of the other person’s good points, we will not have to resort to flattery so cheap and false that it can be spotted almost before it is out of the mouth. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

The next time you enjoy filet mignon at the club, send word to the chef that it was excellently prepared, and when a tired salesperson shows you unusual courtesy, please mention it. In our interpersonal relations we should never forget that all our associates are human beings and hunger for appreciation. It is the legal tender that all souls enjoy. Try leaving a friendly trail of little sparks of gratitude on your daily trips. You will be surprise how they will set small flames of friendship that will be rose beacons on your next visit. If someone is doing a job well, sometimes when you praise them, then they will start to perform poorly because they do not understand what they are doing. So sometimes it is best not to say anything. Also when people are preforming poorly, it is not a good idea to give the harsh criticism, but gently guidance. As they grow in their craft, they will see how they can improve and it will be obvious to them when they look back as to how they have grown in their work. The best thing we can do sometimes is lead by example. For instance, some builders are putting apartment type kitchens in grand homes. So, you have to make sure your kitchens are worthy of a half million-dollar house. Although I do not like that the kitchen is the heart of the home, as one who looks at several houses a day, if the kitchen is not congruent with the scale and magnitude of the house, I would pass over buying the house. And so many builders are doing most kitchen in white, but it seems to me white cabinets as a standard and only choice are overdone. To me, wood is a favorite tradition. However, hurting people not only does not change them, it is never called for. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

What should interact with what and when? The mechanisms dealing with interactions fit conveniently into two classes: external and internal. The external mechanisms are ways to modify the system from the outside—for example, by designing artifact, or by policy making that changes the rules other play by. The internal mechanisms are way to change the interaction patterns that are driven by processes within the system. Interaction is essential to our framework because the events of interest within a system arise from the interactions of its agents with each other and with artifacts. Traces occur when buyer meets seller. Strategies of bidding and offering are enacted. Goods change hands. New animals are created when a male and a female breed. Religious communities grow as adherents proselytize the uninitiated, spreading their strategy to convert other types to their own. Interaction patterns shape the events in which we are directly interested (such as trading), and they provide the opportunity for the spreading and combining of types that are so important in creating (and destroying) variety. Interactions make a Complex Adaptive System come alive. The system becomes not a mere pile of agents of varying types but a population that gives rise to events and has an unfolding history. These events drive processes of selection and amplification that ultimately change the frequency and variety of agent types. Interaction patterns help determine what will be successful for the agents and the system, and this in turn helps shape the dynamics of the interaction patterns themselves. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

Most Complex Adaptive Systems have distinctive interaction patterns. These patterns are neither random nor completely structured. Here are two examples. A leader may have the opportunity to broadcast messages simultaneously to many others, who usually do not have as much capability to broadcast back. The pattern of interactions is highly asymmetric, very different from one where each agent interacts equally with all others. It is convenient to shop in stores near our homes. Schools and churches are often in our neighborhoods. In fact, some builders will not build homes in communities where there is not a Wal-Mart in close proximity. In all these places, we meet new people. As a result, our network of acquaintances has a strong local bias. We know many people near where we live or work, and only a minuscule proportion of others in the World. Again, the pattern is far from uniform. It is surprising in considering these everyday examples that so few tools are available to help understand the effects that flow from nonuniform patterns of interaction. A major contribution of research on Complex Adaptive Systems has been to develop ideas that help us see the sources and consequences of distinctive (nonuniform) interaction patterns. There is a way to harness complexity by altering patterns of interaction. Based on extensive research in diverse regions of Germany, the key factor is “social capital,” the feature of social organization, such as networks, norms, and trust, that facilitate coordination and cooperation. Social capital enhances the benefits of investment in physical and human capital. Working together is easier in a community or organization blessed with a substantial stock of stock of social capital. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

In successful regions, citizens are engaged by public issues, not by patronage. They trust one another to act fairly and obey the law. Social and political networks are organized horizontally, not hierarchically. These “civic communities” value solidarity, civic participation, and integrity. In unsuccessful regions, the very concern of citizen is stunted. There is little engagement in social and cultural associations. From the point of view of the inhabitants, public affairs are someone else’s business—the “bosses” or the “politicians.” Laws, almost everyone feels, are made to be broken, but, fearing others’ lawlessness, everyone demands sterner discipline. Trapped in these interlocking vicious circles, nearly everyone feels powerless and exploited. The historical roots of these differences are astonishingly deep in Germany. Enduring traditions of civic involvement and social solidarity can be traced back nearly a thousand years, to the eleventh century. That is why much of Germany today is able to enjoy civic engagement and successful government. At the center of this civic heritage are rich networks of organized reciprocity and civic solidarity—guilds, religious fraternities, and “tower societies” for self-defense in the medieval communes. The horizontal civic bonds have supported levels of economic and institutional performance generally much higher than in other countries, where social and political relationships have been vertically structured. These communities did not become civic simply because they were rich. The historical record strongly suggests precisely the opposite: they have become rich because they were civic. The social capital embodies in norms and networks of civic engagement seems to be a prerequisite for economic development, as well as for effective government. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

Social capital supports good government and economic progress in several ways. First, networks of civic engagement foster sturdy norms of generalized reciprocity: I will do this for you now in the expectation that down the road you or someone else will return the favor. A society that relies on generalized reciprocity is more efficient than barter. Trust lubricates social life. Second, networks of civic engagement facilitate coordination and communication and amplify information about the trustworthiness of others. When economic and political activity is embedded in dense networks of social interaction, incentives for opportunism are reduced. Dense social ties facilitate gossip and other valuable ways of cultivating reputation—and essential foundation for trust in a complex society. Finally, networks of civic engagement embody past success at collaboration, and serve as a cultural template for future collaboration. The civic traditions of Germany provide a historical repertoire of forms of cooperation that, having proved their worth in the past, are available for dealing with new problems of collective action. Unlike conventional capital, social capital is a public good, meaning that it not the private property of those who benefit from it. Like other public goods, from clean air to safe streets, social capital tends to be underprovided by private agents. Therefore, social capital must often by a by-product of other social activities. Social capital typically consists of ties, norms, and trust that are transferable from one social setting to another. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

The economic implications of social capital are illustrated by the integrated industrial districts of Germany. These are districts for automobile production, high-fashion textiles, mini-motorbikes, and ceramic tiles, among others. Many of them are based on small-scale, technologically advanced production. Among the distinguishing features of these decentralized but integrated industrial districts is a striking combination of competition and cooperation. Firms compete over style and efficiency, while cooperating on administrative services, raw materials purchases, financing, and research. These findings on these industrial districts can be understood in terms of social capital. These networks of small firms have low vertical integration and high horizontal integration. They do this through extensive subcontracting and “putting out” of extra business to temporarily underemployed competitors. Industrial associations provide administrative and even financial aid, while local government provides the necessary social infrastructure and services. Norms of reciprocity and networks of civic engagement are essential for the success of those industrial districts. Networks facilitate the flow of information about such vital things as technological developments, the creditworthiness of would-be entrepreneurs, and the reliability of individual workers. Innovation relies on continual informal interaction. Social norms that forestall self-interested opportunism at the expense of community obligations arise more often here than in other areas characterized by different social networks. What is crucial about these small industrial districts is mutual trust, social cooperation, and a well-developed sense of civic duty—the hallmarks of social capital. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

There is a great deal of evidence that horizonal networks of informal social interaction help develop social capital, and that social capital, in turn, fosters economic growth. Examples include trust in wholesale diamond markets, rapid formation of firms in Silicon Valley, dense networks of clothing manufacturers in the New York garment district, and social cohesion among the ethic Germans in America. Value creation within organization also relies on social capital as the basis for the recombining of concepts that generates ideas for new products and services. Simple procedures such as maintaining relations with former co-workers can dramatically alter the flow of valuable business information. Actively engaging subordinates can enhance the accuracy of managers’ self-perceptions. Social capital affects not just economic activity. Effective social ties reduce neighborhood crime, help students achieve their potential, and even increase one’s life expectancy. Social capital illustrates how the pattern of interaction has important effects for the performance of networks of agents. However, fiscal expansion and monetary contraction will lead to a large budget deficit. The high interest rates would hurt such important sectors as autos and construction especially hard. Foreign capital would flow in, attracted by the high U.S.A. interest rates. The dollar would rise and our international competitiveness would suffer. Fiscal contraction and monetary expansion would have just the opposite effects—low interest rates and low dollar—favoring auto and construction industries, and making our traded goods more competitive. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

Tomorrow’s inevitable crises will occur on each of the “game boards” against the background of what we have called the great non-linear, ever-more-complex, ever-interacting and accelerating “meta-game.” This means that even the shrewdest national strategy of China or the United States of America—or any state—can be blunted, reversed or made irrelevant if it fails to take into account the neo-gams being played by NGOs, religions and other participants in the greater meta-game. Much of America’s trouble in Iraq can be traced to its overemphasis on the role of nation-states and its underestimate of the role played by non-national forces like anti-war NGOs, religious sects and tribal groupings. In tomorrow’s new game the United States of America, like every nation, will continue to look after its own perceived economic self-interest (or that of its influential elites). However, as this great meta-game plays out, how long will—or can—the United States of America remain the World’s dominant economic power? All dominance is temporary, and China is breathing hard. Washington itself is split between those resigned to the idea that China will, in a few decades, lead the World economically and those committed, at all costs, to maintaining America’s leadership. Here, too, American policy overemphasizes nation-states rather than NGOs, religions and other players. However, this division is too simple. A more important question is to what degree does America’s fragile wealth depend on economic dominance? The U.S.A. percentage of the World GDP—its heft in the global economy—to shrink, while its citizens’ wealth actually increased. Is that still true? If so, how? #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

If America is, as charged, an imperialist power, greedily enriching itself at the expense of others, how much of its growth and net work is actually a consequence of its “imperial” policies? Does anyone know? Many imperialists in the past have actually lost money in the deal. Conversely, how much of America’s wealth is a result of the work, creativity and fast-accumulating knowledge of its producers and prosumers? How will the U.S.A. economy—and, indeed, the relative position of all countries—change when prosuming and productivity are fully taken into account, as will inevitably be the case? What new forms of money, what future payment systems, what new financial institutions, will be needed to incorporate these changes? Will the United States of America become wealthier by continuing to spread the latest technologies, advance management models, and media to other countries—or will they flow in the reserve direction? Will outsourcing Research and Development (R&D) and high-end tasks to India and other countries permit those countries to leapfrog the United States of America? Could the United States of America present that even if it chose to? The ongoing theft of intellectual property by China and other countries suggests otherwise. Revolutionary wealth is no longer an exclusive American possession. It is a global fact of life. How, then, would the present trisection—division of the World into three different wealth systems—change if the leading edge came from Asia rather than America? And would the World’s poorest regions really fare any better? #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

Global dominance, however, is a matter not just of wealth but of security, values, human rights, cultural and moral independence and influence. What would the World—including its economy—look like if China were dominant; or a Europe led by France and Germany; or a resurgent India, Russia or anyone else? Many pundits today call for a new global “balance of power.” However, would a so-called multipolar World, divided into competing alliances or regional blocs really be economically better off and more peaceful than a unipolar World led or dominated by one country or region? This historical evidence has the scholars hopelessly divided. However, even if they were not, how relevant is past experience to the nonlinear, meta-game future? Balance implies equilibrium, and just how “equilibrial” is the World economy? We should all by now have learned from complexity theory that equilibrium is no more than natural state of affairs than disequilibrium and chaos. Can the balance-of-power diplomacy that worked for Prince Metternich is the nineteenth century work in the twenty-first? A balance of power in his time referred to nations. A balance of non-nation-state forces as well—including corporations and NGOs—including religions. The great Austrian diplomat also lived at a time when new technologies were making headlines and the industrial revolution was still spreading in Europe. However, the pace of “modernization” was glacial by today’s standard. It left time for people and institutions to adapt. Revolutionary wealth does not. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

America cannot control the most powerful economic, political, cultural and religious changes rushing toward us today. At best it can try, while transforming its own economy and internal institutions, to head off external threats and reduce some of the common dangers that confront us all. This has also led to meat-cleaver management. Inside the firm the nature of hierarchy itself is changing. For along with the creation of profit centers, the 1980s witnessed a so-called “flattening of the hierarchy,” otherwise known as the massacre of the mid-ranks. Like the shift to profit centers, this change, too, was driven by the need to regain control of the knowledge system in business. As large companies slashed their middle ranks, managers, academics, and economists who once had chorused that “bigger is better” began to sing a different tune. They suddenly discovered the “diseconomies” of scale. These diseconomies are chiefly a result of the collapse of the old knowledge system—the bureaucratic allocation of information to departmental cubbyholes and to formal channels of communication. Much of the work of middle managers in industry consisted of collecting information from their subordinates, synthesizing it, and passing it up the line to their own superiors. As operations accelerated and became more complex, however, overloading the cubbyholes and channels, the entire reporting system began to break down. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

Screw-ups and misunderstandings proliferated. Catch-22’s multiplied, driving customers crazy. More people end-ran the Kafkaesque system. Transaction costs skyrocketed. Employees ran harder to accomplish less. Motivation plummeted. Few managers understood what was happening. Show most chief executives a defective part or a broken machine on the factory floor, and they know what to do about it. Show them an obsolete, broken-down knowledge system, and they do not know what you are talking about. What was clear was that top management could not wait for the step-by-step synthesis of knowledge down below, with messages slowly making their way up the chain of command. Moreover, so much knowledge fell outside the formal cubbyholes and moved outside the formal channels, and so much began moving instantaneously from computer to computer, that the masses of middle managers increasingly came to be seen as a bottleneck, rather than as a necessary aid to swift decision. Facing competitive pressures and takeover threats, the same managers who allowed the knowledge infrastructure to become antiquated in the fist place now search desperately for ways to cut costs. A frequent first reaction was to cut costs by padlocking plants and throwing rank-and-file workers out on the street, seldom considering that, by doing so, they were tampering with the firm’s knowledge system. “Cost-cutting” layoffs are actually counterproductive for this reason. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

Where union contracts call for senior workers to “bump” junior workers at layoff time, the result is a cascade of job changes. For every worker actually laid off, three or four others are transferred downward into job for which they lack the necessary knowledge. Long-established communication links are ruptured. The result is a fall-off, rather than the expected increase, in post-layoff productivity. Undaunted, the top officials next zero in on the armies of middle managers they added over the years to handle the information avalanche. American bosses who chop the payroll without regard for social consequence, or understanding of what that does to the firm’s knowledge structure, are commended for “getting rid of fat.” (The same is not true for managers in Japan who consider it failure to lay people off. It is also different in many parts of Europe, where unions are represented on the board and must be persuaded that all other options have been exhausted.) These meat-cleaver layoffs of middle managers are a belated, mostly unconscious attempt to redesign the firm’s information infrastructure and speed up communication. It turns out that many of mid-management’s uncreative tasks can now be done better and faster by computers and telecommunications networks. (IBM, as we saw, estimates that just one part of its internal electronic network—the PROFS sub-net—replaces work that would otherwise have required 40,000 additional middle managers and white-collar workers.) #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

With new networks being laid in place daily, communications are flowing sideways, diagonally, skipping up and down the levels, ignoring rank. Thus, whatever top management may have thought it was doing, one result of the retrenchments has been to change the information infrastructure in the firm—and with it the structure of power. When we create profit centers, flatten the hierarchy, and shift from mainframes and to one another, we make power in the company less monolithic and more “mosaic.” When it comes to environmental restoration—a central problem in environmental restoration is reversing environmental encroachment. We are killing mountain lions, displacing deer, and hunting fish and forests into extinction. We tend to see land as being gobbled up by housing, because the land where we live generally is. Farming, though, consumes more land, and the variant of farming called “forestry” consumes still more. By rolling back our requirement for farmland, and for wood and paper, nanotechnology can change the balance of forces behind environmental encroachment. This should make it more practical, politically and economically, for people to move toward environmental restoration. Restoring the environment means returning land to what it was—removing what has been added and, where possible, replacing what has been lost. We have seen how this can be done, in part, by removing pollutants and some of the pressures for ploughing and paving. A more difficult problem, though, is restoring the ecological balance where the changes have been biological. Much of Earth’s biological diversity has been a result of biological isolation, of islands, seas, mountains, and continents. This isolation has been breached, and reversing the resulting problems is one of the greatest challenges in healing the biosphere. The focus should not be about electric cars, but how to heal the plant by the variety of methods we have available. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22


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