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06637_Field_TCUM T202.txt
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1996-04-10
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predictable, then, that any new means of moving information
will alter any power structure whatever. So long as the new
means is everywhere available at the same time, there is a
possibility that the structure may be changed without
breakdown. Where there are great discrepancies in speeds of
movement, as between air and road travel or between
telephone and typewriter, serious conflicts occur within
organizations. The metropolis of our time has become a test
case for such discrepancies. If homogeneity of speeds were
total, there would be no rebellion and no breakdown. With print,
political unity via homogeneity became feasible for the first
time. In ancient Rome, however, there was only the light paper
manuscript to pierce the opacity, or to reduce the
discontinuity, of the tribal villages; and when the paper supplies
failed, the roads were vacated, as they were in our own age
during gas-rationing. Thus the old city-state returned, and