Saturday, March 4, 2017

Coordination and Network

Over the centuries, there have been three main principles of Coordination in human societies: 1. Radial, i. e. from a central source, of which hierarchical organization is a variety; 2. Non-interference; and 3. Exchange.  Each can be found in contemporary America, #1 more covertly, e. g. corporate hierarchies, than the other two, which are overt features in economic activity, e. g. property and trade, respectively, and thereby influence most other modes of relation. Now, more recently, a fourth model has emerged--the Network, most concretely, the World Wide Web, and more abstractly, the telecommunications system.  But, there is a lack of coordination between the four, more precisely, an antithesis between the centralized #1 and the decentralized #4, which also entails one of Nationalism vs. Planetarism.  The ill-effects of this discordance are only becoming superficially, at best, recognized, e. g. protectionist reactions against Globalism.

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