Chapter X: Conclusion (3)

“Gantt’s concept of rendering service is scientifically true
because it is ‘time-binding,’ and therefore true for the human
class of life and in human dimension. This is why Gantt’s concepts
have counted for so much and will survive ‘IN TIME.’ ” Discussion
by Alfred Korzybski of Mr. W. N. Polakov’s paper “Principles of
Industrial Philosophy” presented at the Annual Meeting of The
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, December 7-10,
1920.

LITERATURE

GANTT, H. L.:

“Work, Wages, and Profits.” The Engineering Magazine Co., 1913. N. Y.

“Industrial Leadership.” Yale University Press. 1916.

“Organizing for Work.” Harcourt, Brace & Howe, 1919. N. Y.

Selection from Contents: The Engineer as the Industrial Leader. Economics and Democracy. Democracy in Production. Democracy in the Shop. Democracy in Management. “The Religion of Democracy.”

POLAKOV, WALTER N.:

“Mastering Power Production.” The Engineering Magazine Co. 1921. N. Y.

Selection from Contents: The Descent of the Principle of Production for Use. The Power Industry as an Economic Factor. Mastering Labor Problems. (Conditions) Autonomous Co-operation. Aims of Labor. Right to be Lazy and the Right to a Job. Qualification of Men. The Working Day. Fatigue. UNIVERSAL LABOR (_Corresponding exactly to Time-binding—Author_). The Position of an Engineer. Mastering Labor Problems. Compensation. The Social Aspect. The Economic Aspect. The Basis of Wages. Incentive Payments. Profit Sharing. Premium Places. Rewarding Individual Efforts. Two-rate wages. Energy as a Commodity.

“Principles of Industrial Philosophy.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the A. S. of M. E., December, 1920.

“Equipment and Machinery.” Y. M. C. A. Association Press. 1921. N. Y.

“Organization and Management.” Y. M. C. A. Association Press. 1921. N. Y.

“Quo Vadis America?” In preparation.

STEINMETZ, CHARLES P.:

“America and the New Epoch.” Harper & Brothers. 1916. N. Y.

Selection from Contents: The Individualistic Era: From Competition to Co-operation. England in the Individualistic Era. Germany in the Individualistic Era. The Other European Nations in the Individualistic Era. America in the Individualistic Era. Evolution: Industrial Government.

“Incentive and Initiative.” Y. M. C. A. Association Press. 1921. N. Y.

WOLF, ROBERT B.: Pamphlets.

“Individuality in Industry.” Bulletin of the Society to promote the Science of Management. Vol. I. No. 4. August, 1915.

“The Creative Workman.” Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry. 1918. N. Y.

“Non-Financial Incentives.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the A. S. of M. E. December, 1918. N. Y.

“Modern Industry and the Individual.” A. W. Shaw & Co. 1919. N. Y.

“Securing the Initiative of the Workman.” American Economic Association. 1919. N. Y.

“Creative Spirit in Industry.” Y. M. C. A. Association Press. 1921. N. Y.

MISCELLANEOUS LIST OF BOOKS

VON BERNHARDI, General F.: “Germany and the Next War.” E. Arnold, London. 1912.

BRANDEIS, LOUIS: “Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use it.” F. A. Stokes, N. Y. 1914.

THOMAS FARROW and WALTER CROTCH: “The Coming Trade War.” Chapman & Hall, London. 1916.

HUEFFER, FORD MADDOX: “When Blood is Their Argument.” Hodder & Stoughton. 1915. N. Y.

HAUSER, HENRY: “Germany’s Commercial Grip on the World, Her Business Methods Explained.” E. Nash Co., London. 1917.

LAUGHLIN, J. L.: “Credit of the Nations.” Scribner’s Sons, N. Y. 1918.

MAETZU, RAMIRO DE: “Authority, Liberty and Function in the Light of War.” Geo. Allen and Unwin.

DELAISI, FRANCIS: French Opinion, “The Inevitable War.” Small, Maynard & Co., Boston. 1915.

NEILSON, FRANCIS: English Opinion, “How Diplomats Make War.” B. W. Huebsch. 1916.

BY A GERMAN (German Opinion). “J’Accuse!” Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1915.

FOOTNOTES

1 To digress a bit, it may be interesting to add, that population and
the need of people increase in a geometrical progression; and also
that the growth of individuals is limited by the fact, that they
have to absorb their food through surfaces which as growth goes on
increase only as _squares_, while the bodies to be fed, being
volumes, increase in size as _cubes_ increase, as the cubes of the
same base grow faster than the squares,

22 = 4, 23 = 8, 32 = 9, 33 = 27, and so on,

it is obvious, that in the infancy of an organism only a part of the
food goes to maintain life, the larger part goes for growth; when
the organism becomes larger, the absorbing surfaces, growing
proportionally to the square, the food is spent to build the mass of
the volume of the body and is spent proportionally to the cube.
Suppose our organism has grown to a size twice as large, its
absorbing capacity has become four times larger, its volume eight
times larger. In case of 3 times, the difference will be 9 and 27.
It is obvious that at some point, all the absorbed food will be used
to maintain life and none will be left for growth, and this last
process will stop. This is another example which explains how the
theory of dimensions is vitally important in life and shows why it
is absolutely essential to take account of dimensions in the study
of life problems.

_ 2 An Outline of the History of the Western European Mind_, by James
Harvey Robinson. The New School for Social Research, New York, 1919.
This little volume gives condensed statements, as in a nutshell, of
the historical developments of the human mind and contains a long
list of the most substantial modern books on historical questions.
All the further historical quotations will be taken from this
exceptionally valuable little book, and for convenience they will
simply be marked by his initials—J. H. R.

3 (J. H. R.) “Late appearance of a definite theory of progress.
Excessive conservatism of primitive peoples. The Greeks speculated
on the origin of things, but they did not have a conception of the
possibility of indefinite progress ... Progress of man from the
earliest time till the opening of the 17th century almost altogether
unconscious.... Fundamental weakness of Hellenic learning. It was an
imposing collection of speculation, opinions, and guesses, which,
however brilliant and ingenious they might be, were based on a very
slight body of exact knowledge, and failed to recognize the
fundamental necessity of painful scientific research, aided by
apparatus. There was no steady accumulation of knowledge to offset
the growing emotional distrust of reason.... Unfulfilled promise of
Hellenistic science. Influence of slavery in checking the
development of science.... The deficiencies of Medieval culture. All
the weaknesses of the Hellenic reasoning, combined with those of the
Christian Fathers, underlay what appeared to be a most logically
elaborated and definitive system of thought. Defects of the
university education.... Little history of Natural science, in our
sense of the word, taught in the universities.... Copernicus, ‘De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.’ Libri VI, 1543.... Copernicus’
own introduction acknowledges his debt to ancient philosophers.
Still believed in fixed Starry Sphere. His discovery had little
immediate effect on prevailing notions. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)
made it his chief business to think out and set forth in Latin and
Italian the implications of the discovery of Copernicus.... Bruno
burned by the Inquisition at Rome.... Keppler (1571-1630) and his
discovery of the elliptical orbits of the planets. Galileo
(1564-1642). His telescope speedily improved so as to magnify 32
diameters. His attitude toward the Copernican theory, which was
condemned by Roman Inquisition 1616.... Galileo’s chief discoveries
were in physics and mechanics. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) proved that
the laws of falling bodies apply to the heavens. This made a deep
impression and finally the newer conceptions of the universe began
to be popularized.... Lord Bacon (1561-1626), the ‘Buccinator’ of
experimental and applied modern science.... His lively appreciation
of the existing obstacles to scientific advance; the idols of the
tribe, cave, market-place, and theatre.... Necessity of escaping
from the scholastic methods of ‘tumbling up and down in our reasons
and conceits,’ and studying the world about us. Undreamed of
achievements possible if only the right method of research be
followed ... the distrust of ancient authority.... Descartes
(1596-1650), ... he proposed to reach the truth through analysis and
clear ideas, on the assumption that God will not deceive.... His
fundamental interest in mathematics.... His claim to originality and
his rejection of all authority.... Obstacles to scientific advance;
the universities still dominated by Aristotle; the theological
faculties; the censorship of the press exercised by both church and
state; ...”

4 (J. H. R.) “Phases of religious complex. ‘Religious,’ a vague and
comprehensive term applied to: (1) certain classes of emotions (awe,
dependence, self-distrust, aspirations, etc.); (2) Conduct, which
may take the form of distinctive religious acts (ceremonies,
sacrifices, prayers, ‘good works’) or the observance of what in
primitive conditions are recognized as ‘taboos’; (3) Priestly, or
ecclesiastical organizations; (4) Beliefs about supernatural beings
and man’s relations to them: the latter may take the form of
revelation and be reduced to creeds and become the subject of
elaborate theological speculations.

“Association of religion with the supernatural; religion has always
had for its primary object the attainment of a satisfactory
adjustment to, or a successful control over, the supernatural....
The cultural mind viewed as the product of a long and hazardous
process of accumulation.... Spontaneous generation of superstitions.
Prevalence of symbolism, mana, animism, magic, fetishism, totemism;
the taboo (cf. our modern idea of ‘principle’), the sacred, clean
and unclean; ‘dream logic’—spontaneous rationalizing or ‘jumping at
conclusions’;... The 16th book of the Theodosian Code contains
edicts relating to the Church issued by the Roman Emperors during
the 4th and 5th centuries. They make it a crime to disagree with the
Church; they provide harsh penalties for heretical teaching and
writing, and grant privileges to the orthodox clergy (exemptions
from regular taxes and benefit of the clergy).... Christianity
becomes a monopoly defended by the state.... Psychological power and
attraction in the elaborate symbolism and ritual of the church....
Allegory put an end to all literary criticism.... Flourishing of the
miraculous; any unusual or startling occurrence attributed to the
intervention of either God or the Devil.... Older conceptions of
disease as caused by the Devil.... Our legal expression ‘act of God’
confined to unforseeable natural disasters. How with a growing
appreciation for natural law and a chastened taste in wonders,
miracles have tended to become a source of intellectual distress and
bewilderment.... Protestants shared with Roman Catholics the horror
of ‘rationalists’ and ‘free-thinkers.’ The leaders of both parties
agreed in hampering and denouncing scientific discoveries....
Witchcraft in its modern form emerges clearly in the 15th
century.... Great prevalence of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th
centuries in Protestant and Catholic countries, alike.... Trial of
those suspected of sorcery. Tortures to force confession. The
witches’ mark. Penalties, burning alive, strangling, hanging. Tens
of thousands of innocent persons perished.... Those who tried to
discredit witchcraft denounced as ‘Sadducees’ and atheists.... The
psychology of intolerance. Fear, vested interests, the comfortable
nature of the traditional and the habitual. The painful
appropriation of new ideas.... The intolerance of the Catholic
Church: a natural result of its state-like organization and
claims.... Its doctrine of exclusive salvation and its conception of
heresy both sanctioned by the state. Doubt and error regarded as
sinful.... Beginnings of censorship of the press after the invention
of printing, licensing of ecclesiastical and civil authorities....
Protestants of 16th century accept the theory of intolerance.”

5 (J. H. R.) “The Socio-psychological foundations of conservatism:
Primitive natural reverence for the familiar and habitual greatly
reenforced by religion and law. Natural conservatism of all
professions. Those who suffer most from existing institutions
commonly, helplessly accept the situation as inevitable. Position of
the conservative; he urges the impossibility of altering ‘human
nature’ and warns against the disasters of revolution. Conservatism
in the light of history: History would seem to discredit
conservatism completely as a working principle in view of the past
achievements of mankind in the recent past and the possibilities
which opened before us.... Futility of the appeal of the
conservative to human nature as an obstacle to progress.... Culture
can not be transmitted hereditarily but can be accumulated through
education and modified indefinitely.”

6 (J. H. R.) “Formulation and establishment of the evolutionary
hypothesis. Discovery of the great age of the earth; ... gradual
development of the evolutionary theory.... Darwin’s ‘Origin of the
Species,’ 1859. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903).... Haeckel (1834-1919)
and others clarify, defend and popularize the new doctrine.
Subsequent development of the evolutionary doctrine by Mendel,
Weisman, DeVries and others. Weakening of the special creation
theory by other evidence such as archeology and biblical criticism.
The significance of the doctrine for intellectual history. Character
of the opposition to the evolutionary theory. Popular confusion of
‘Darwinism’ with ‘evolution.’ Revolutionary effects of the new point
of view. Does away with conception of fixed species (Platonic ideas)
that had previously dominated speculation. The genetic method
adopted in all the organic sciences, including the newer social
sciences. Problem of adjusting history to the discoveries of the
past 50 years. Bearing of evolution on the theory of progress.
Organic evolution and social evolution.”

7 (J. H. R.) “The Deists and philosophers destroy the older
theological anthropology and reassert the dignity of man; the growth
of criticism and liberalism has made the analysis of social
institutions somewhat less dangerous; the general growth of
knowledge has reacted in a stimulating way upon the sciences of
society; the great increase in the number, complexity and intensity
of social problems has proved a strong incentive to social science;
The Darwinian hypothesis has rendered preposterous any conception of
a wholly static social system. However, the modern social sciences
in our capitalistic order meet much the same resistance from the
‘vested interests’ that theological radicalism encountered in the
Middle Ages, and social science has in no way approached the
objectivity and progressiveness of present day natural science....
Grave effects of vested rights in hampering experiments and
readjustments.... Obstacles to readjustment presented by consecrated
traditions.... Influence of modern commercialism in the inordinate
development of organization and regimentation in our present
educational system. Psychological disadvantages of our conventional
examination system. As yet our education has not been brought into
close relation with prevailing conditions of our ever increasing
knowledge.... Excellent aims and small achievements of sociology in
practical results. (_Because of absolute lack of any scientific
base._ Author.) General nature of the problem of social reform:
psychological problems involved in social reform movements: violent
resistance of the group to that criticism of the existing
institutions, which must precede any effective social reform....”

8 (J. H. R.) “During the past two centuries the application of the
scientific discoveries to daily life has revolutionized our methods
of supplying our economic needs, our social and intellectual life,
and the whole range of the relations of mankind. The impulse of
invention, iron, coal, and steam essential to the development of
machinery on a large scale; machinery has in turn begotten the
modern factory with its vast organized labor, the modern city and
finally, our well nigh perfect means of rapid human
inter-communication. The tremendous increase in the production of
wealth and the growing interdependence of nations has opened up a
vast range of speculation in regard to the betterment of mankind to
the abolition or reduction of poverty, ignorance, disease, and
war.... Man advances from a tool-using to a machine-controlling
animal. The rise of the factory system; the concentration and
localization of industry; increased division of labor and
specialization of industrial processes. The great increase in the
volume of capital and in the extent of investments; the separation
of capital and labor and the growth of impersonal economic
relationship. Problems of capital and labor; unemployment and the
labor of women and children; labor organizations. Increased
productivity and the expansion of commerce. Industrial processes
become dynamic and everchanging—a complete reversal of the old
stability, repetition and isolation.”

9 It may be contended by some that animals have been making “progress”
or some may say that animals also “bind-time.” This use of words
would again become mere verbalism, a mere talking about words—mere
speculation having nothing to do with _facts_ or with correct
thinking, in which there is no intermixing of dimensions. The
peculiar faculty belonging exclusively to humans which I designate
as “time-binding” I have clearly defined as an _exponential
function_ of _time_ in the following chapter. If people are pleased
to talk about the “progress” of animals, they can hardly fail to see
clearly that it differs both in function and in type or dimension
from what is rightly meant by human progress; human time-binding
capacity lies in an entirely different dimension from that of
animals. So, if any persons wish to talk of animal “progress” or
animal “time-binding,” they should invent a suitable word for it to
save them from the blunder of confusing types or mixing dimensions.

This mathematical discrimination between classes, types, dimensions
is of the utmost importance in the natural sciences, because of the
transmutation of species. To adjust the Darwin theory to
dimensionality is a somewhat more difficult problem; it involves the
concept of the “continuum”; but with the modern theory of de Vries,
these things are self evident. If animals really progress, which is
doubtful because they are an older form of life than humans and they
have not shown any noticeable progress to the knowledge of man,
their progress is so small in comparison with man’s that it may be
said, in mathematical terms, to be _negligible_ as an infinitesimal
of higher order.

10 It must be remembered here that our world is, first of all, a
dynamic conglomeration of matter and energy, which to-day, as well
as in the first period of primitive organic life, took and takes
different known and unknown forms. One of these forms of energy is
the chemical energy, with its tendency to combinations and
exchanges. Different elements act in different ways. The history of
the earth and its life is simply the history of different chemical
periods, with different transformations of energy. A strange fact is
to be noticed about nitrogen. Nitrogen chemically has an exceptional
inertness toward most other substances, but once it is a component
part of a substance, almost all of these combinations are a very
powerful source of energy, and all of them have a very strong effect
upon organic life. Nitric acid acts through oxidation, the
substances are burned up by the oxygen given off from the acid.
Nitric acid occurs in nature, in a combination called nitrates. From
the soil the nitrates pass into the plant. Nitrite of amyl acts upon
our organs in a most violent and spasmodic way. Nitrous oxide is the
so-called laughing gas.

Alkaloids are compounds of a vegetable origin, generally of complex
composition and capable of producing marked effects upon animals.
They all contain nitrogen. Explosives which are a chemical means of
storing tremendous amounts of energy, are mostly of some nitrogenous
compound. Albumen is an organic compound of great importance in
life, which, besides being the characteristic ingredient in the
white of an egg, abounds in the serum of the blood and forms an
important part of the muscles and brain. Albuminoids play the most
vital rôle in plant life and are an extensive class of organic
bodies found in plants and animals, as they are found to form the
chief constituents of blood, nerves. All albuminoids found in
animals are produced by the processes fulfilled in plants. Their
exact constitution is not known; analysis shows that they contain
approximately: Carbon 50-55%, Hydrogen 6.9-7.5%, Nitrogen 15-19%,
Oxygen 20-24%, Sulphur 0.3-2.0%. Venous blood contains in 100
volumes: Nitrogen, 13; Carbonic Acid, 71.6; Oxygen, 15.3. Arterial
blood: Nitrogen, 14.5; Carbonic Acid, 62.3; Oxygen, 23.2.

“Nitrogenous compounds in general, are extremely prone to
decomposition; their decomposition often involving a sudden and
great evolution of force. We see that substances classed as ferments
... are all nitrogenous ... and we see that even in organisms and
parts of organisms where the activities are least, such changes as
do take place are initiated by a substance containing nitrogen....
We see that organic matter is so constituted that small incidental
actions are capable of initiating great reaction and liberating
large quantities of power.... The seed of a plant contains
nitrogenous substances in a far higher ratio than the rest of the
plant; and the seed differs from the rest of the plant in its
ability to initiate ... extensive vital changes—the changes
constituting germination. Similarly in the bodies of animals ... in
every living vegetal cell there is a certain part that contains
nitrogen. This part initiates these changes which constitute the
development of the cell.... It is a curious and significant fact
that, in technology, we not only utilize the same principle of
initiating extensive changes among comparatively stable compounds by
the help of compounds much less stable, but we employ for the
purpose compounds of the same general class. Our modern method of
firing a gun is to place in close proximity with the gunpowder which
we choose to decompose or explode, a small portion of fulminating
powder, which is decomposed or exploded with extreme facility, and
which on decomposing, communicates the consequent molecular
disturbances to the less easily decomposed gunpowder. When we ask
what this fulminating powder is composed of, we find that it is a
nitrogenous salt.”—Spencer.

11 Of course, the geometric progression does not represent _precisely_
the law of human progression; it is here employed because it is
familiar and serves, better perhaps than any other simple
mathematical means, to show _roughly_ how human progress goes on.
The essential elements of a progression are the first term _P_ and
the ratio _R_ and the number of the terms _T_; in the human
progression _PR__1__, PR__2__, PR__3__, ... PR__T__, P_ is the
starting status of the first generation, _R_ is the peculiar
capacity of humans to bind time and is a _free gift_ and _law_ of
_nature_, which it would be folly not to recognize and accept as
such, _T_ is time, or number of generations. It is obvious that the
magnitude, _PR__T_, is entirely dependent on the magnitudes of _PR_,
and _T_. The existence of _R_ and _T_ is independent of humans, _R_
being a law of nature, _T_ a gift of nature, _P_ the starting status
of the initial generation. With _P = 0_ or _R = 0_ THERE WOULD BE NO
PROGRESS or progression at all; each term in the case of human
progression is mainly dependent upon the time and the work done by
the dead. The existence of _R_ and _T_ is entirely beyond human
control. Humans can control only the MAGNITUDE of those elements by
education. Here comes the tremendous responsibility of education. It
is not necessary to use much imagination to see that if humanity had
always been rightly educated, science would have long ago discovered
the natural forces and laws essential to human welfare, and human
misery would to-day be relatively small.

12 See Appendix III.