Centralization of Knowledge Work and the Phrenology of Neural Companies |
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| Most thinking in humans takes place within the brain. Knowledge work in higher animals in general can be said to be highly centralized. The reason for this may simply be that data transmission is a cost-effective business and squandering of capacities will lead to an evolutionary disadvantage. |  ABIONECO: similarities between neural and
organizational information processing |
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| In consequence, neurons communicating with each other will arrange themselves as to optimize the limited ressource of signal transmission. | ||||||
| Obviously, those cells communicating most often with each other will eventually be grouped together. As the cells of our brains can rightly be said to communicate almost exclusively with themselves, centralization will be the result. It is only now and then that some brain cell will receive a signal from a sensory organ or send a signal to a motor neuron. Statistically, the brain's communication with other parts of the body is quite negligible. | ||||||
| In how far, now, can such thought be applied to economic companies? | ||||||
Data transmissiof of logistics company wirh worldwide operational activities |
More animations and pictures on
the neural intelligence of economic companies |
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| Although the costs for data-transmission in human organizations are not yet very high, we may rightfully expect them to be so rather soon. | ||||||
Imagine
the enormous amounts of data that will soon have to be
transmitted due to the following tendencies:
One may argue that the earth looks still rather "naked" when viewed from space and therefore we can still launch more satellites into space, really create a dense fabric of optical fibres across the surface of our planet and yet use many more frequencies for radio transmission, it is only a question of time when the available space is saturated with transmission mechanisms. Our planet or its immediate surroundings may indeed turn into a some sort of technical brain with hardly any natural soil or rock visible from space. |
More of this in German: the spatial
differentiation of knowledge work in large
companies |
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| Then at the latest will senders and recipients taking part in communication have to rearrange themselves geographically to optimize their use of the limited ressource of data-transmission. | ||||||
Centralized knowledgework of a logistics company |
A caricature playing on the similarity between human beings and economic companies |
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| We may then expect knowledge traders to be geographically grouped in a way as to reflect the common data they deal with. | ||||||
| Globally, communicational activity might look like the sum of a number of intricately intertwined but nevertheless centralized individuals: | ||||||
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