Before factories came along, things were usually produced entirely by someone alone. From the beginning of the process, all the way to the end, one person made the whole thing. This made for experienced and knowledgeable craftsmen who knew everything about what they made. They were generalists who knew how to do many things.
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But as we became more technological, things changed. Fast forward to about the time of the industrial revolution and we diverge from being generalists. In order to produce more, and quicker, factories started to make people into specialists of constructing a single aspect of the larger whole. Rather than build the whole product themselves, a person would only deal with one component in factory line. Each person played a role in building the whole product, but they only knew how to build there one section of the whole product. This was the introduction of specialization into the mainstream.
Specialization makes things more efficient in the larger social context where we cooperate. Imagine trying to do everything yourself. That's why factories in the industrial revolution boomed because they separated tasks into parts which made things go quicker and got more done.
Specialization was increased in various areas of society. Different types of industry employed specialization, and workers became specialized into one field, experts in one field to accomplish a specific task. Specialization brought about a greater split from generalization and being capable of doing many things related to a product or industry.
Compartmentalization also developed, as someone works only in one compartment within a company. They may or may not know what other compartments do, or how they do what they do. All an employee in one compartment needs to know is how to do what they do in their own respective compartment. This was an especially favorably method for areas of secrecy, be it in companies or in government sectors.
Compartmentalization also allows ignorance to perpetuate, as people are forced to be ignorant of what happens in the larger picture, and only see the part they play. This can allow the heads of a company or governmental institution that engages in secrecy to employ people who don't know what they are working towards in the end. They can be involved in building things that they might object to if they were building it all on their own or if they knew what it was.
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This model of efficiency by segmenting people into specialized tasks or parts has been replicated to all of society. Society operates like a factory now.
The factory of society has us all outsource various aspects of our lives for others to do instead of us doing it all. It makes things more convenient, but it also brings with it more co-dependence on each other to get things. We are all human resources, parts of a larger whole, united by our dependence upon each other, even if we don't know each other for the most part.
The system is more functional now, with experts in various parts. We all act as cogs in a machine. If one cog fails, then another can replace it to keep the systemic machine running. We are mostly all replaceable and expendable in a corporate "slave" structure. No longer is one person the whole builder, and without them the thing can be built or service can't be provided. We have value to do the work requested, value to the corporate overlords and to the system as a cog, but we can all be replaced with someone else who specializes as we do.
Many people find specialization boring as they focus on one thing for too long. Their specialized careers are a routine of doing the same thing and this gets mundane and loses meaning and value for them personally. They do their jobs because they get pain for economic survivability. We stick with out boring jobs because we need to in order to survive.
Technology has helped us get to where we are, and it has greatly benefited us all. But there are costs that we don't really notice, costs to our way of life and self-sufficiency. We have more pollution, waste and toxins in our environment as a result of this boom in technology and production from the industrial revolution. We are more dependent on each other.
Think of the fickleness of our economic system and transportation. If we have an economic crash, or fuel shortage, transportation costs are affected, and so too are all the products we import, such as food for our survival. The way we live and exploit this planet isn't sustainable, but we keep going at it because that's what we know how to do and we are now dependent on keeping things going this way for things to stay as they are.
At some point things will have to change, and that may involve a lot of suffering for many of us. I hope the technological developments will help to allow us to change from our way of life. Solar power is one area that can help us greatly.
We have also outsourced our thinking and become more dependent on technology to provide us with answers. There is so much information, that many don't want to try to wade through and figure out what is going on in our world. Information overload has them apathetic to wanting to learn more. They end up coasting through low quality information and entertainment to distract them and remove the boredom from the jobs they do 5 days a week.
Looking deeper into things has become less desirable, as it's a chore that takes time, energy and greater effort compared to the distractions they prefer to focus their attention on. Many think that if they need to know something, they can just look it up on google and their trusted sources and experts will give them the answer they need.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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Right now, technology needs to take that next step, and we need to move out of the Industrial revolution, to a more full sustained technological revolution. The factory machine is fighting this attempted move tooth and nail, while still embracing technology. People are still maintaining the factory mindset while trying to embrace technology. And Government does not want change no matter how much the individual politician screams it from their bloody pulpits, they do not want change.
We, I personally feel, are getting closer to the real "Technological Revolution", than we have been before. It how ever is being fought tooth and nail by society and government. We have 3D printers. They can do some pretty amazing things. We have the ability to lab produce healthy meat/protein. We have the ability to hydroponically grow vertical gardens and feed thousands of people. Just think when #D printers can be made that just use a shovel full of sand to make a glass plate, then the minerals in the sand are used to make resistors, diode, and capacitors, what can be done. No more chopping forest down for cattle farms, no more chopping forest down for farms, no more deep earth or open pit mines for minerals, Yes Technology can and does make a real "change", but society, and governments, resist. The revolution though is on the way, and Like the Borg say - - "Resistance is Futile".
Yeha, 3D printers are awesome. They can print a house in a day I think. Once the tech gets more affordable we can print so much without buying it from manufacturers. Yes, no more murder of innocent animals who did us no harm, grow the meat if you can't handle a healthy plant only way of eating ;) Technology is what is allowing us to evolve towards more moral and free ways of living indeed ;)
It's a circle we have to break. Because we are owned, we think we can own too. Because we are in pain, we think we can put other in misery too. It's an enslavement cycle.
It's the opposite of 'don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you'. It's the golden rule gone black.
And we keep on doing this because it's so hard to see what going on because of the compartmentization/specialization.
I sometimes wonder what it must be like to be specialized in murdering animals for a day job. One person, specialized in killing animals so the rest of the us can eat meat without seeing the murder we are an acclompice of. So we can keep our conscience clean.
But just because we don't know about it, doesn't mean it's not there.
Yeah, the old bully motto: I have suffered so I will cause you suffering :/
People don't have a developed conscience really, they lack truer care to know objective right from wrong. They know sits wrong if they start to think about it in some cases, so they don't want to or just make justifications for why they need to keep doing things the same way... :/
There is more to the problem. We have not only outsourced our thinking to a app on a mobile phone, but we are actually moving to a phase whereby, AI will help us send pre-framed responses to texts. Companies dont't even want people to type something in a search button or click on a weather app, just say what you want and an automated voice assistant will do the rest. It will even be your friend when you are lonely, tell you lame jokes from the internet. All to feed consumerism.
There was a time when people would repair things, try to not spend hard earned money to understand things and fix them. Now, just replace. Products are cheap and don't last.. why repair, just replace.
Food can be ordered at the tip of a button. Buying and cooking food, a basic survival skill is vanishing because I can just order something on my phone. Soon we may not even need to drive at all. of course we have uber, but soon a software will be driving cars.
We are losing all the basic survival skills that one can think of. And for what? No everyone is so busy that they need to free up time to do something important. Most people will free up time and then waste all of it following random people on instagram.. yearning to have a "fun and happening" lifestyle, only to end up feeling lonely and without company. Finally it leads to lifestyle diseases which are also on the rise in the modern world.
Had heard that they demonstrated it this time but hadn't seen the video myself. Thanks for sharing.
People are so disconnected they are running to AI and robots for companionship. Sex roots and dolls are a growing industry :/ It's sad... we are devolving :/
Yeah automated everything, drive for me, cook for me, do it all for me while I numb my boring pointless life with entertainment drivel and drool... :P
Changing this structure, takes building a new structure.
You cannot change a part of it, as the structure is self maintaining.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance shows this well.
As Buckminster said, we need to build a parallel new structure that replaces the old structure. We cannot change it from within.
This is not really true. We are actually far better, per capita, then we were 100 years ago. Even more than 200 years ago. Burning wood for heat in a fire place is much more polluting than an oil fired boiler. Comparing cars to horses is interesting. Horses are far worse for pollution, and stinkiness than cars per mile traversed.
We just have a lot more people and a lot more cars.
However, we also have some corporations that are actually producing toxins to produce toxins. Yes, we have some that are outright evil.
We are better off yes, but there are more toxins than prior to that more dirty phase. You are using a closer relative time period. I was using a longer view relative to industrial revolution that introduced more pollution. We were also less people back then even if there was more wood burning ;) Thing shave gotten much better, we are much better off, but there are still issues ;)
Interesting reviews about technology, yes with the technology everything will be easy, but sometimes leave the negative side, such as waste and will reduce the workforce, because everything is done by machine or robot, so for the developing countries to become a problem with the increasing number unemployment.
Automation will likely bring about more unemployment int he short term as more cognitive jobs require training and skills for ppl to get into. We need to think more, and be less grunt workers ;)
In a factory situation, specialization can help increase the output in the mass production of materials and goods. However if one component goes bad...if one special part cannot perform, it affects the whole and can weigh heavily on the production. In that case the chain of workers and the factory is only as strong as their weakest link. Thanks @krnel
Yup, when each person is a part, they all depend on each other. If one fails, they all grind to a halt.
"At some point things will have to change, and that may involve a lot of suffering for many of us"
I've been thinking the same thing. The technology and vaccines, hell what they're spraying us with, is all killing us or making us sick or mentally unstable. It's definitely neutering our ability to find useful information that isn't extremely biased. There are some topics which, when searched, return nothing but pages of one-sided results. Pages of them.
PS: I also just voted for you as a Witness
One sided results don't bother me when they are about the truth :P I don't care to read about falsity being purported as truth hehe. Waste of my time. Thank you :)
with factory work being easy sir @krnel .., a very nice post, full of information. thank you
I am resteemit your post @krnel
i learned something new from your every post
insightful and informative post @krnel keep up the good work . best of regards
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