Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/07044_Field_TCUM T609.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 1KB | 16 lines

      “Work to be done,” of course, means the transformation
of one kind of material energy into some new form, as trees
into lumber or paper, or clay into bricks or plates, or metal into
pipe. In terms of this kind of work, the accumulation of office
personnel in a navy, for example, goes up as the number of
ships goes down. What Parkinson carefully hides from himself
and his readers is simply the fact that in the area of
information movement, the main “work to be done” is actually
the movement of information. The mere interrelating of people
by selected information is now the principal source of wealth in
the electric age. In the preceding mechanical age, work had not
been like that at all. Work had meant the processing of various
materials by assembly line fragmentation of operations and
hierarchically delegated authority. Electric power circuits, in
relation to the same processing, eliminate both the assembly
line and the delegated authority. Especially with the computer,