Key Takeaways
1. The Information Society: A Century-Old "Control Revolution"
The Information Society, I have concluded, is not so much the result of any recent social change as of increases begun more than a century ago in the speed of material processing.
Beyond the cliché. The notion of an "Information Society" is often seen as a recent phenomenon, driven by modern computing. However, this book argues that its origins trace back over a century, to a profound shift in how societies manage complexity. The rise of informational tasks and services is a direct consequence of earlier, fundamental changes.
A revolution in control. This transformation, termed the "Control Revolution," began in the late 19th century as a response to the unprecedented speeds of material processing unleashed by the Industrial Revolution. It encompasses rapid advancements in how information is collected, stored, processed, and communicated to exert societal control. Microprocessing technologies are merely the latest, albeit accelerated, phase of this ongoing revolution.
Impact on par with industry. The Control Revolution's impact on society—intellectual, cultural, and material—is as significant to the 20th century as the Industrial Revolution was to the 19th. It represents a dramatic leap in our ability to exploit information, fundamentally reshaping economies and daily life long before the advent of the digital age.
2. Control: Life's Fundamental Imperative Against Entropy
Life itself implies control, after all, in individual cells and organisms no less than in national economies or any other purposive system.
Life's core function. At its most fundamental level, control is the essential process distinguishing living systems from the inorganic universe. All living entities, from single cells to complex societies, must continuously extract, reorganize, and distribute matter and energy to maintain their organization against the universal tendency towards disorder, known as entropy.
Information's vital role. This continuous struggle against entropy necessitates control, which in turn depends entirely on information processing and communication. The very word "control" derives from "contrarotulare," meaning to compare against records, highlighting the inherent link between information and purposeful influence towards a predetermined goal. Without information, purposeful action and system maintenance are impossible.
Beyond mere order. Unlike the simple, repetitive order found in crystals, living systems exhibit complex, end-directed organization. This purposive organization, driven by the need for control, defines life itself. The Control Revolution, by extending these "marvellous structures and properties" of life through technology, represents a change unprecedented in recorded history.
3. Four Evolutionary Leaps in Control's Trajectory
This succession of four levels of programming, each one of which appears to have complemented and extended more than superseded already existing levels, constitutes the total history of control as we know it—a relatively smooth development punctuated by only these four major revolutions in control.
Layered control systems. The history of control is marked by four distinct evolutionary leaps in programmable structures. Each new level complements and extends previous ones, rather than replacing them, creating increasingly sophisticated control capabilities. These layers allow for greater adaptability and complexity in living systems.
The four revolutions:
- Level 1: DNA (Molecular Programming): Origin of life, ~4 billion years ago. Genetic code for replication, regulation, and reproduction.
- Level 2: Brain (Cultural Programming): Higher vertebrates, ~100 million years ago. Learning through imitation and teaching, enabling faster adaptation than genetic evolution.
- Level 3: Bureaucracy (Formal Rules): Human societies, ~3000 BC. Formal organizations and written procedures for coordinating collective activity.
- Level 4: Mechanical/Electronic (Algorithms): Late 19th century. The Control Revolution's technological innovations like computers and microprocessors.
Addressing control problems. Each level of control addresses three fundamental problems:
- Existence (being): Maintaining organization against entropy.
- Experience (behaving): Adapting to external changes.
- Evolution (becoming): Reprogramming for long-term survival and improvement.
These problems are solved through mechanisms, behavior, and programming processes, from DNA replication to societal planning.
4. Industrial Speed Triggered a Crisis of Control
By far the greatest effect of industrialization, from this perspective, was to speed up a society’s entire material processing system, thereby precipitating what I call a crisis of control, a period in which innovations in information-processing and communication technologies lagged behind those of energy and its application to manufacturing and transportation.
Unprecedented acceleration. The Industrial Revolution dramatically increased the speed and volume of material processing, from raw material extraction to manufacturing and distribution. This acceleration, driven by steam power, pushed societal systems beyond the "human pace" that had governed them for millennia. Goods began moving faster and in greater quantities than ever before.
A widening gap. This rapid acceleration created a "crisis of control" because existing information-processing and communication technologies could not keep pace. Traditional methods of management, based on slower, more localized interactions, became inadequate for coordinating vast, fast-moving industrial systems. This imbalance highlighted the critical need for new control mechanisms.
Durkheim's insights. Sociologist Emile Durkheim observed this crisis at both societal and individual levels. He noted the breakdown of market equilibrium due to producers' inability to "embrace the market in a glance," leading to economic crises. At the individual level, he identified "anomie," a breakdown of norms due to inadequate communication among increasingly specialized societal sectors.
5. Bureaucracy: The First Modern Information Processor
Although bureaucracy had developed several times independently in ancient civilizations, Weber was the first to see it as the critical new machinery—new, at least, in its generality and pervasiveness—for control of the societal forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution.
An ancient solution, newly pervasive. While bureaucracy existed in ancient civilizations, its modern form emerged as a critical response to the Industrial Revolution's crisis of control. Max Weber recognized it as a new, pervasive "machinery" for managing the complex societal forces unleashed by industrialization, offering a structured way to coordinate collective activity towards explicit, impersonal goals.
Rationalizing control. Bureaucracy introduced a new level of rationalized control, characterized by:
- Impersonal orientation to information ("cases")
- Predetermined formal rules for decisions
- Clear division of labor and responsibilities
- Hierarchical authority and specialized functions
This formalization allowed for the management of large-scale systems that would overwhelm traditional, particularistic methods.
Preprocessing information. A key aspect of bureaucratic control was "rationalization," or what computer scientists call "preprocessing." This involved reducing the amount of information to be processed by standardizing inputs (e.g., standardized forms, fixed time zones). This reduction in informational burden significantly enhanced the degree of control, making large, complex social systems manageable.
6. Mass Production Demanded Automated Control
The speed at which steel was made was continually rising, and new innovations were constantly being introduced to speed it further.
The need for speed. The application of steam power to manufacturing, particularly in industries like steel, led to unprecedented production speeds and volumes. This created an imperative to control these accelerating throughputs to maximize efficiency and profit, as unit costs declined with faster processing. The challenge was to coordinate complex, multi-stage operations.
Designing for flow. Solutions to this production control crisis focused on designing factories as explicit "processors" of material flows. Andrew Carnegie's Edgar Thomson Steel Works, for instance, was laid out to ensure continuous flow from raw materials to finished goods via internal rail networks. This "organization" of physical structures minimized handling and maximized throughput speed.
Scientific management and automation. Frederick Winslow Taylor's "scientific management" further rationalized production by standardizing human movements and processes, effectively turning workers into "interchangeable parts" of the system. This quest for efficiency, coupled with the integration of processes through continuous-flow machinery (like Ford's assembly line), laid the groundwork for automation, replacing human tasks with machine functions.
7. Mass Distribution Required Integrated Information Systems
The key innovation in social technology was the commodity exchange, based on the telegraph and later on telephone exchanges, which permitted crops to be sold in transit and even before harvest and allowed the exploitation of even minute-by-minute changes in prices.
Coordinating vast networks. The explosion of mass-produced goods necessitated equally efficient distribution systems, leading to a crisis in coordinating movements from millions of producers to thousands of processors and consumers. This required integrating transportation, communication, and financial flows across vast geographical areas.
New informational infrastructures. The solution involved a coevolution of transportation and communication technologies:
- Railroads and Telegraph: Enabled rapid, predictable movement of goods and instantaneous information exchange.
- Commodity Exchanges: Allowed for selling crops "in transit" or "futures," stabilizing markets and reducing credit risks.
- Through Bill of Lading: Standardized documentation for tracking goods across multiple carriers, becoming a negotiable financial instrument.
Bureaucratic control of logistics. Wholesale jobbers and later large multi-unit firms developed sophisticated bureaucratic structures to manage these complex flows. They employed traveling salesmen for market feedback, established car accountant offices for logistics, and monitored "stock turn" rates to optimize inventory and cash flow, effectively replacing Adam Smith's "invisible hand" with management's "visible hand."
8. Mass Consumption Necessitated Demand Management
A new market had to be found if the great volume of output from the new machines was to be sold.
Overproduction's challenge. The efficiency of new continuous-process technologies in the late 19th century led to unprecedented levels of output, often exceeding existing demand. Industries like oatmeal, canned goods, and cigarettes faced a "crisis of consumption," needing to stimulate and control consumer demand to ensure adequate returns on massive capital investments.
The birth of modern advertising. This crisis spurred a revolution in consumption control, pioneered by figures like Henry Crowell (Quaker Oats). Key innovations included:
- Brand Names and Trademarks: Differentiating generic products (e.g., Uneeda Biscuit) and building consumer loyalty.
- Consumer Packaging: Designed to "sell itself" on shelves, conveying brand identity and convenience.
- National Advertising Campaigns: Using mass media (newspapers, magazines, later radio) to create and shape demand on a national scale.
Controlling the market. Mass advertising became a powerful tool for manufacturers to:
- Influence consumer preferences and habits.
- Create barriers to entry for competitors.
- Gain leverage over wholesalers and retailers.
This shift transformed advertising from a simple informational service into a strategic function, leading to the professionalization of advertising agencies and the rise of mass media as instruments of demand management.
9. The Rise of Generalized Data Processing and Computing
Hollerith’s data-tabulating system—probably the world’s first machinery to process information as a material flow—as an even more extensive elaboration of a railroad system.
Bureaucracy's informational strain. The rapid growth of bureaucracy in the late 19th century, with its increasing scope and complexity of information processing (inventory, billing, sales analysis), quickly strained manual handling systems. This necessitated innovations in generalized information-processing hardware to support and extend bureaucratic control.
Hollerith's railroad-inspired system. Herman Hollerith's electric punch-card tabulator, patented in 1889, was a pivotal innovation. Inspired by railroad tickets and signaling systems, it processed information as a material flow (punched cards). This system dramatically reduced the time and cost of tabulating the U.S. census, making complex statistical analysis feasible and transforming data processing from an art to a science.
Early computing's diverse roots. The period 1880-1939 saw the coevolution of four interrelated information technologies:
- Desk-top calculators: Mass-produced, faster arithmetic.
- Punch-card processors: Hollerith's tabulators, sorters, and later accounting machines.
- Analog computers: From tide predictors to fire control systems (Sperry's battle tracer).
- Digital computers: Early prototypes by Zuse, Atanasoff, and Aiken, anticipating modern architectures.
These developments laid the foundation for the "Computer Age" long before World War II, demonstrating that the Control Revolution was already fostering a new level of generalized control hardware.
10. Control's Self-Perpetuating Cycle: The Engine of the Information Age
The great scientific revolution is still to come. It will ensue when men systematically use scientific procedures for the control of human relationships and the direction of the social effects of our vast technological machinery . . . The story of the achievement of science in physical control is evidence of the possibility of control in social affairs.
A continuous revolution. The Control Revolution, born from the Industrial Revolution's crisis, has not abated but continues to accelerate. This sustained development is driven by a positive feedback loop where advances in energy utilization, processing speeds, and control technologies mutually reinforce each other. Each solution to a control problem often generates new, higher-order control challenges.
Predictability and planning. Increased control leads to greater reliability and predictability in processes and flows, which in turn enhances the economic returns of applying information technology. This has fueled the continuous development of sophisticated planning and forecasting tools, from econometric models to operations research, becoming central to both modern corporations and states.
Layering of control. Information processing and flows themselves require control, leading to successive "layers" of control technologies. For example, systems designed to manage factory throughputs eventually require new systems to manage the information generated by those management systems. This progressive layering, from primary economic sectors to quaternary (finance, insurance) and quinary (government, law) sectors, defines the ongoing evolution of the Information Society.
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