Fortune in the Hands of the People

"By the end of the nineteenth century... courts had fully transformed the corporation into a "person," with its own identity. The logic was that, conceived as natural entities analogous to human beings, corporations should be created as free individuals" (pp. 16). This entry in "The Corporation" is peculiar in that what is highlighted throughout the reading so far is how "evil" a corporation is. How the corporation brings out the blood-hounding, conniving, wicked qualities of humans. The real question then is: why? Why does the corporation embody a savage character yet is thought to be representative of human logic?

I agree with the courts in that the corporation should be treated as a "person". The corporation is built up from human needs, and thus need to abide by like laws. However, somewhere in the shuffle the corporation has evolved into a whiteboard; an outlet for the combined forces of human greed. The corporation has developed into a power greater than it's parts combined, which is why it needs to be treated and tried as an individual. With the outcome of people working for it leading to a new more powerful being, there needs to be a leash on this pit-bull.

The corporation without bounds is wild in character. "The corporation is irresponsible... Corporations try to 'manipulate everything, including public opinion,' and they are grandiose, always insisting 'that we're number one, we're the best" (pp 57). The corporation is having too much fun. Fed power through money, the corporation manipulates all peoples under it who lust for this fortune. The hierarchy pyramid needs to be knocked down and the pieces placed back into the humble hands of the constitute parts; the real individuals: the people.

Creative Reality

I find it ironic how the root of the "creative class" is anything but a standardized class, yet the popularity of such creative thinking has perpetrated this way of thinking into the mainstream system of classification. I appreciate how the social system has turned to value creative thinking. Indulgence in mental endeavour is no longer expressed a self-fulfilling leisure activity, but rather a cultivating method of production.

Twenty to thirty years ago, challenging the mental and contemplating ideas was not valued for the everyday individual. This line of work was left for the select few, the novelist and the intellectually accomplished. Now time has changed where such creative, outside the box thinking is encourage. Ideas that spring from creative thoughts are intertwined into our economy. People look towards products, systems, methods, and ideas that are appealing to their mental gratification. With more people finding pleasure in stimulating the brain, there are more areas of work directed precisely towards meeting these mental pursuits. This is an ongoing cycle of supply and demand.

Our society has the opportunity to expand knowledge and embrace change. No longer are we bound down by obtaining our next meal, or finding shelter. Our fundamental needs are met. Seeking new horizons is no longer exploration of the physical land, but perception of a new reality.

Generating Time; Impossible

Our brains are this gift that set us apart from other species. Yet, much like the workings of technology, when abused can produce negative effects. The brain functions much like a computer with electrical signaling of inputs and outputs. In this day and age, we are constantly receiving stimuli and commutating responses via our own technological wiring; the CNS and PNS. The hard drive is our physical components, and the software is our mental processes. The problem with this analogy is that we are not computers, we are humans! However, we have embraced the technological efficiencies and attempt to apply them to our most humanely interactions.

In the reading, "High-Tech Stress" Rifkin points out that humans function on "myriad biological clocks that have been entrained, through the long period of evolution, to the rhythms and rotation of the earth". Computers do not follow this time manner; "today's computer culture operates on a nanosecond time gradient". Nonetheless, we struggle against the machine to be compatible with this high-tech speed. It is impossible! But this is how to get "close to the machine", to be lost in a transcendence of time. Computers defy time by taking functions beyond their manual limitations. Where humans once employed manual labor, they now work to mentally control the workings of the computer.

The negative effects that come with humans trying to match the capabilities of computers lie within our terminating condition. We are not indestructible. Human beings need compliance with our biological functions. We run on a much more intrinsic, natural pattern that computer manipulations cannot mimic. Yes the implications and advancement of the technological era can certainly benefit humans. But to engulf the entirety of the human connection to past present and future and functionalize this to a desired, set time clock is abuse. It abuses humans by generating time from time itself. This time is our time, neither created nor destroyed in essence. So to push "transcended time" by ways of computers onto humans is like pouring more water into a glass than it can hold. Mentally you can envision this, but by all physical rules this cannot be. Nor can humans continuously work on a time frame set by computers.

The Acting Role of a Server

While reading "On the Front Lines of the Service Sector" I found the writing relatable. Many of the insert stories of actual service workers hit the point in describing how it feels to work an "unvalued" job. However, these jobs are necessary for the "big shots" to enjoy the comforts of either being a head employer, or receiving such service work. Working an easily replaceable job does make you feel insecure and dampers your self-worth. On top of these negative feelings, a service worker is still expected to work at top speed meeting company efficiency goals. It feels like the company is sucking you for all you're worth to increase gains. Such a demand results in high stress.

I think this writing does justice to the saying; "walk a mile in another man's shoes". Many people who have never worked in a restaurant setting expect the service to be promptly superb. The trouble with providing such a service is when there is more customers than workers to supply this service. Usually it is impossible to be at each customers beck and call when there are multiple customers. Yet to be at the customers side should they need something is what is demanded. There is a job list on top of serving tables that the customers do not see. Behind the shinny presentation there is a grimmy, hard, hectic job. The smile that the customer sees is not necessarily how the server actually feels. It is an acting job when serving table; one minute you have to smile and greet your table politely but the next minute work in elbow to elbow, pushy conditions with your c0-workers who are usually impolite and uptight. Through all this it is necessary to keep your composure, otherwise you are replaced.

And who replaces you? The boss, who usually can not perform the work of his/her employees at the pace required. Often times in a restaurant setting there is a flow that develops between the co-workers that helps each worker to juggle their many tasks. When the manager steps in, the flow is disrupted. Workers are knocked off of their routines and forced to work under even higher stress.

What is most disturbing about working a service job, like restaurant work, is not feeling like all of your hard work truly amounts to anything substantial. As in the insert, a grocery -bagger says "you're always just providing a service, the same service over and over again...nothing ever ends or begins". Without an ending to the service work there is no conformation of success, or gratitude of reaching a goal.

Technology Thinks No Black or White

African Americans have been closed off to the notion of technology as their break from confinement. The technological world was kept secret from them. Technological advances seem to touch second base, but for African Americans the strife was to get in the game. The whole idea behind technological advancements is to reach farther more efficiently. This efficiency component often throws out the human physical aspect of hard labor and appeals to the mental instead.

Now, African Americans, before the civil war, were looking for the privilege of "freedom", where as Europeans claimed this "freedom". The most basic of human needs were already met for Europeans; their physical freedom. Physically they had the freedom to obtain food, water, clothing and shelter. This laid the foundation so that Europeans may focus on expanding towards mental endeavors. On the other hand, African Americans were in the dark to this type of mental exploration, for they "needed" to secure their physical existence first.

I think African Americans value physical achievement more so than European whites, or of the like, because of this deeply imbedded drive to own their physical rights. Physical pursuits instead of mental ones, fundamental reassure people of the African American culture, thus providing yet another basic need; safety. If African Americans can feel safe and secure while taking on physical tasks, then it's no wonder they have not fully grasped the appeal of technology.

It is only a matter of time, however, for African Americans to feel fully safe in their environment. Once the time of the past is matched by the healing of the present, African Americans will be able to build mentally and technologically at the same rate as European whites, for the laws of the technological world defy the laws of the physical world. They only need be understood, and applied, there is no color discriminate.

The Programmer's World; Is it Our World?

Ullman describes the culture of programmers as a disconnected group from the rest of "normal" society. Sensual feelings are abandoned and replaced with a commitment to rational thinking. All humanely needs are summed down to the most basic; food and drink. Every other desire is fulfilled by the technological puzzle that captures their mental capacities. They are not concerned with the purpose of the puzzle, or what service their work is towards. Rather, the puzzle is written in a different language; a technological language that separates their mental world from the rest of life.

Their connections to one another as programmers lie in an understanding of this estranged language. As Ullman says "we are together in a universe where two human beings can simultaneously understand the statement 'if space is numeric!'". They long not for satisfaction through means with imperfections that would drive any other human being. Where other human beings can be fulfilled by exaggerating what is in this world to meet their standards, programmers looks to be "right" to be perfect in their calculations. For this "unspeakable, incalculable gift" to be "as always right" is what creates the technological world.

Working away at the code of programming, the programmers become close to the machine, close to this "right" way. Ullman likes to be engaged in the programming reality where she can write an "abstracted interface to any arbitrary input device". Other programmers share this understanding of logic, and can be lost in their "own inner electricities".

So what is reality? Is it the purpose these programmers fulfill; working towards a software program to help AIDS patients, or is it the inner workings of codes the programmers see to make such a software program? I find it interesting how two seemingly different worlds of perception can merge into a connection where when assessed properly can exist simultaneously. Technology is all around us and often helps us in a non-technological sense by providing a medium to throw our emotions of fear and hope onto. But this program is written in a manner so far away from any emotional feeling, only rational logic.

Ford, Marjorie. "Getting Close to the Machine". The Changing World of Work. Perarson Education, Inc., 2006.87-96.