Barrett’s Briefing: Back To The Future
by Richard BarrettThe world is changing. We are witnessing the de-industrialization of America. As a consequence, home and work life are blending together again and the means of production are moving back to the home. Sound like the medieval era? You bet.
The Industrial Revolution
The printing press, invented by Gutenberg circa 1440, helped to introduce the Renaissance and end the Medieval era. The printing press sped the transmission of knowledge, planting the seeds for the Industrial Revolution about three hundred years later.
But even though the printing press created a flood of knowledge, it did not affect the daily nature of work. Family life and work life occurred in the same place—the home. The loom occupied a central place in the home. For carpenters, potters, and other craftsmen, the home was also the workshop. Workers (back then they were peasants) lived with their personal means of production—knowledge, skill, and their own personal production tools.
Since the beginning of recorded history work and family were largely inseparable within the house—then came the Industrial Revolution.
With the advent of mechanical production equipment (ironically, some of the earliest were mechanical weaving looms) the Industrial Revolution (circa. 1750-1850) centralized the means of production around the production equipment, and later around the power source which drove the production equipment. Within a few years craftsmen and laborers began to commute to the local factory.
The factory lowered production costs and eventually improved living standards for everyone. But its immediate impact was putting some workers out of work and inflicting further indignities on others.
Centralized production dictated fragmentation of work. Just like the mechanical devices, laborers became cogs in the factory wheel, doing small, repetitive, de-humanizing tasks.
Mechanization intensified throughout the 1900’s, leading to the famous “lights out” factories in Japan, which could operate in the dark without any human intervention. Workers migrated away from factories and into offices.
The Information Revolution—De-Industrialization
Initially, the information revolution (circa. 1950) appeared to be an extension of the Industrial Revolution. Manufacturing jobs peaked (as a percent of all jobs) at 30% in the 1950’s. Then workers began to shift from factories to offices.
At first the new information work itself remained fragmented and repetitive, just like the old factory jobs. Computers and communications, the means of production for information work, were large, centralized, and expensive, just like the old factory equipment.
In the 1980’s the PC and the internet started to weaken the chains of office workers. The de-industrialization of America picked up steam.
Back to the Future – Working from Home
The peasants of the new century are knowledge workers. With an internet connection and a laptop computer they typically work from home. Some remain as employees, but an increasing percentage work as independent contractors paid by the job, just as medieval craftspeople did. Job satisfaction may be better, but job security has plummeted.
This information revolution is only now working through the economy.
The industrial revolution changed the face of America and the nature of work. The information revolution is changing us.
The Biggest Unknown—The Power of Human Creativity
As Mark Twain said, “history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” The Renaissance unleashed a tremendous wave of knowledge and human creativity that reshaped the world. However the Renaissance was only a small foretaste of the coming explosion of creativity and knowledge from the Information Revolution.
It will reshape everything, even our bodies and our minds. A little frightening perhaps, but what an exciting time to be alive.
