May 8, 1974 Number 19 Each of us in the research game goes At the same time, we face a decline through life discovering-and noting in material resources and cheap energy. down--all kinds of interesting phe- It will no longer be feasible to produce nomena. We record their occurrence, the myriad widgets whose planned and frequently a correct explanation obsolescence has kept our of them, in various ‘data banks’: lab going unless reclamation techniques notebooks, correspondence, articles, are vastly improved. The energy-re- books, microforms, magnetic tape fdes, source crisis and the prospect of less etc. We also store quite a lot of unique consumption has had profound effects in our own intracranial on Wall Streeters. But while the non- memory banks. consumption of goods causes gloom in These stores of knowledge make up the industrial boardroom, the informa- an imperfect, incomplete and fragile tion industry is prospering as never . Ironically, the imperfec- before. tion of knowledge increases the more Indeed, Machlup, Anderla, and we increase our efforts to make it less others have forecast a continued ex- so. The need for knowledge grows as ponential growth in the production we gather more information to satisfy and handling of scientific and other it. Thus, information is in a special types of informational -3 In 1962, sense a ‘perishable’ commodity. It is Machlup reported that the ‘knowledge ‘perishable’ both in the sense of being industry’ already accounted for 29% of deteriorable (like food) and consumable our GNP. Since then, as one of the (like gasoline). The ‘perishable’ nature ‘white-collar service industries’, it has of information may be of enormous been growing quite rapidly. significance for our future economic The prospect of exponential increase health. in information may cause a sigh among What has information to do with those who already feel overburdened economics? The with information. 1 too wonder about is past. We are in a Post-Industrial So- so-called information overload and re- ciety, on the threshold of the Informa- sultant psychosocial stress. a-s But I tion Revolution. Computers, automatic wonder and worry with an optimistic control systems, manufacturing auto- viewpoint. mation--all presage a decline in the The production of information does, physical labor that still accounts fcr a of course, consume resources and large part of the cost of most com- energy. The research community is modities.

65 as ecologi~ally balanced a system as general), we have done little or nothing any other.G One research team may put to prepare for a decline in in twenty years of labor to produce physical, blue-collar work. We are all one journal article. But the energy and aware of the economic impact of strikes material resources consumed in the on the worker. perhaps of deeper process must be minimal in comparison import may be the psychological im- with those consumed daily by factory pact of prolonged strikes as a foretaste teams converting tons of iron, robber, of the blue-collar decline. What is the and petroleum products into auto- effect on the self-image of the blue- mobiles and work-saving (and energy- collar worker as he confronts the ln- consuming) appliances. Perhaps some formation Revolution? reader knows of research on the re- This problem touches us all, and the source and energy requirements of a stereotypes we live with and by. 1ss ‘typical’ research project, and will let Philadelphia there are thousands of me know about them. What resources unemployed young men willing and and how much energy does the average able to do pick-and-shovel work or scientist use to produce the average almost any form of ‘manly’ labor. Yet paper? How many rats, test tubes, in- our pleas for male data-entry opera- struments are used? How much paper ators and clerical workers go un- for printing? How much electricity and answered. Obviously one of our diffi- other forms of ener~? The average crdties in dealing with the social con- scientist spends most of his time using sequences of the Information Revolu- his brain. Today very little physical tion will be its requirement that we energy is required of the scientist. 1ss build a new image of the white-collar the past, even scientifically simple lab- worker--physical, mental, and emotion- oratory tasks often required enormous al. Perhaps we have begun to do so-- physical effort. Think of the Curie s perhaps that is one aspect of the deeper shoveling tons of ore! meaning of the ‘sexual revolution’. As the scientific and technical litera- Would we today find Madon Brando’s ture Wows, more and more scientists Stanley Kowalski any less convincing will become ‘theoreticians’. They are a were he an lSI indexer rather than a new breed quite distinct from ‘bent h machinist? scientists’ and laboratory technic ians.1 According to Marxian and some The terms ‘laboratory scientist’ or other analyses, increased productivity ‘bench scientist’ one day will become will lead to surplus, and surplus to the self-contained contradictions. I onc e ’s incapacity to absorb the out- discussed this distinction in terms of put of production. This hypothesis of wet and dry in formation. a Even now , the downfall of capitalism may be increasing ,mmbers of scientists ar e purely academic if capitalism is denied becoming ‘information scientists’.g the resources and energy ‘productivity’ Again, what has all this to do wit h requires. Workers will not then, as pre- economics? on the threshold of th e dieted by Marxian doctrine, revolt hrformation Revolution, in the midst of under continuing pressure for greater a rapid growth of the ‘knowledge in- productivity, For different reasons, dustry’ (and of service industries in they will be unemployed. If govern- ...... ment intervenes to create employment, also redesign our educanonal system. the intervention maybe equally aca- Indeed, several recent papers have sug demic as an economic solution, if we gested- th~ is what is happening-a are without resources and energy. depressing thought.1 o-la We educate, What would be the effect, however, graduate, and train information pro if displaced workers were used to create cessors, but are quite unprepared to and process information ? As I have absorb these information processors said, almost any use of information re- into our work force. quires more and produces more. As the These amateurish wanderinw into population becomes increasingly edu- sociology and economics may be sub cated, we can expect that more people, ject to instant criticism by experts. not less, will go into research, or into What about the different impact of some lesser area of the ‘knowledge capitalist and socialist systems ? What- industry’. More information will b~ ever the criticism, however, it can cer- generated. More people will be re- tainly be stated categorically that the quired for its analysis, storage, correla- economics of information and the tion, communication. knowledge industry has received in- If we don’t take advantage of the adequate attention in the scholarly potential of the Information Revolu- press. “The politics of knowledge may tion,. we had better get ready some be the politics of necessity in a society labor-intensive ‘projects like the pyra- more interconnected and complex than mids. While we are at it, we had better anything we ever imagined.”1s

Anonymous. Big growth ahead in Garfmkel, D.A. machine-independent 1. 7. technical information. Chem. & Eng. language for simulation of complex News 23 April 1973, p. 7. chemical and biochemical systems. Comput. Biom, 2(1):31-44, 1968. Anderla, G. “Information in 1985. 2. Forecasting study of information 8. fi%~;~;i’1 ‘%’~~ei~’~mationPaper pre-‘r needs and resources. ” (FSBN Number 92-64- sented at the Drexel Institute of Technology 11093-3). OECD, 1973, 131 pp. Lecture Series in Information Science. Phila- Machlup, F. The Production and delphia, Pa,, 29 September, 1964. 3. Dtstnbu tton of Knowledge m the 9. ------Information science then, United States. Princeton: Princeton Univ. now, and tomorrow; or, will the real Press, 1962. information scientist please stand up! Cutient Contents No. 39,27 September 1972. p. 5. Lipowski, Z.J. 4. “Sensory overloads, 10. Wendling, R.C. The undergraduate information overloads, and behavior. ” curriculum: what are we doing to it? Paper presented at the 2nd Congress of the AA UP Jourmd 59(4):407-10, 1973. International College of Psychosomatic Medi- Levi, E.H. A society in danger of 11. cine, Amsterdam, June 18-21, 1973. deserting the mind. ‘f?se Washington ~. ;...... ------Affluence, information Post, 24 February 1974, p. C2. Thompson, W.1. Walking out on the inputs, and health. Sot. SCI. & &fed 12. 7:517-29, 1973. university and escaping the grip of the old industrial state. Harper ‘S247:70-6, Sep Blackburn, T.R. Information and the 6. tember 1973. ecology of scholars. Science 181: N. The future as informa- 1141-46, 1972. 13. ~nry, tion. Futures 5(4): 392-400, 1973.

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