Authority

This is one thing that is changing in our move from Industrialization to Software. And most people do not like it - because it is threatening one of the foundations of their existence.

For them, there have to be authorities - that know everything, and are in control of everything. My father was an example - he loved being an authority! Deep inside, he was nothing, and he knew that - but this was compensated for, by his being an authority - and as a result, very important!

This was the paradox of being an authority - you were nothing, and everything, at the same time. But you are high on the social ladder, anyway.

And something else has to be said - you do not need to learn anything, because you already know everything! And this is the fatal error, that is bringing them down - without their knowing it.

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In my working life, in the last half of the last Century, the high-tech workers, who made everything work - kept complaining that their bosses, who were higher-up - didn't know much. And the higher up they got, the less they knew.

This was not quite right - they did have one important skill - they knew how to please those in power, and become one of them!. For them, the worse things got - the better off they were. And sure enough, things got worse - a lot worse!

Except for Software, that keeps getting better. In that small world, everything was logical, and sane. And profitable. But even there - there are huge insanities, and I bump into them all the time.

I live in a divided world - with two kinds of authorities. The second kind is shown by Wikipedia - where you can find out about anything, for free!

If you cannot find what you are looking for there - you can do an Internet search, and have access to a database that has been assembled by thousands of virtual computers - working away, in the Cloud.

Human authorities have been replaced by something else - intelligence that is built into the structure of the Internet itself.