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The Secret Art of Power - Part III

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 4/8/2006

RCM,

Codes can be classified according to any number of taxonomies. But I would like to concentrate in this letter on the spatial versus the temporal cyphers.

Most codes are physical entities with a limited and well-defined spatial presence. They do not evolve- they have no future. They constitute isomorphic representations of information (by "information" I mean relationships between real world entities). Knowing the "mapping principle" (the cypher) is sufficient to translate them into the information that they represent. In more than one sense, to us, humans, the whole universe is such a code. Our sense organs (coupled with representational-computational models in our brains) encode external stimuli and present it to "us". We interact with representations of the world, never with the "real thing". The acquisition of language is another such case. Children learn codes - sets of abstract symbols which stand for interactions between entities in the real world and for the cerebral representations of such entities. So, we are surrounded by codes, immersed in them, interact with them - and only with them. The application of the principle of natural selection in humans is confined to the enhancement of our aggregate ability, as a species, to process codes. The result is that, intuitively, we identify the ability to decode and encode successfully - with the ability to survive. Codes have an inordinate importance in our lives. We are code-slaves. Small wonder that we submit to code masters.

Code masters are people who master codes of the temporal kind. It is when a web of interactions is perpetuated in time that codes of this second type emerge. These codes have an history - a past and a future. They evolve. They adapt. They are principles of organization of spatial and lower level temporal codes. They are the results of an accumulation of many generations of exegesis. Goethe's book is such a temporal code because it can be (and is) re-interpreted with the introduction of additional codes. It is adaptable and changes with time and circumstances. It is both a representation and a statement about representations, both a codes and an organizing principle of codes, both a taxonomy and a theory (rule).

The temporal codes are so complex and so kaleidoscopic that only the initiated members of specifically educated elites can master them and put them to good use on behalf of the rest of humanity. "Good use" in this case is any use that enhances humanity's ability and chances to survive. "To master" a code means to be able to so manipulate it as to effect the environment (including other codes). And "to manipulate" a code means to "map" it into reality, to extract from it both the representation (=the classic definition of decoding) and the computational model. The latter activity is known as "theory building".

We can now put all the building blocks together coherently and consistently:

Only the initiated members of specifically educated elites can map codes to reality and extract from them both representations and computational models (=manipulate them). This incessant activity is used to enhance humanity's ability and chances to survive. The manipulation of higher order (temporal) codes is also known as "wielding power". The members of these elites wield power over their fellow human beings. The latter submit to them because they believe that their chances to survive will be enhanced by allowing the elites to exercise their abilities to manipulate codes.

It is here that the related issues of secrecy and centralization arise.

Secrecy is the withholding of information. It can be done without resorting to codes. It often is. It can be done by resorting to codes and keeping a private, inaccessible key. This is also often done. But there is no necessary or sufficient condition between secrecy and encoding. The only thing linking secrecy to codes is the fact that the elites make frequent use of both. Eager to monopolize their knowledge and dispense with it only for a high, cartelized, price - the elites resort to secrecy. a common way of preserving secrecy is to encode the secret information.

The notion of centre has to do with the monopolization of knowledge. People often confuse secrets with codes and with central authority because all three have to do with the preservation and perpetuation of knowledge and information monopolies and, hence, with power.

Which leads me back to the main theme of this exchange: what will modern technologies do to these structures and processes? For instance, can knowledge monopolies be preserved in the age of the internet (in other words can codes, secrecy and centres be preserved)? Is the internet the great equalizer which will eliminate, once and for all, the existence of elites, power structures and power asymmetries? And, above all, has the manipulation of temporal (complex) codes become counterproductive and self defeating?

I have my answers to these questions - but I would rather hear yours first. Still, to be fair, let me share some thoughts with you:

Regarding the first question, I believe that the specialization of knowledge is such that, if anything, knowledge monopolies are strengthening and proliferating rather than diminishing or weakening. True, there is more equitable access to all knowledge - but the structural barriers are enormous, almost insurmountable. The resulting filtering process is more rigorous and onerous than ever. Put crudely, everyone has equal access to medicine schools (ignoring the tuition fees). But very few will become cardiologists. Monopolies of knowledge are maintained today more through codes (professional jargon, to name but one) than through the brute force of secrecy. Centres are being abolished and replaced by the multi-centeredness of the market. Copyright, for instance, cannot be enforced where no market exists (in Russia, or China, or the Balkans) - despite the existence of old fashioned centred societies. The decentralized invisible hand of the market replaces - gradually yet surely - the previous power centres.

Regarding the second question, the internet will eliminate the centres of economic power as we know them today. It will do so by revolutionizing entire industries. Just consider the upheaval it has visited upon book retailing, music recording, book publishing and the print media. And this is only the beginning. The process of mass customization coupled with the enormous computing power of even standard desktop computers will ensure the massive and irrevocable re-distribution of economic power and the decentralization of economic production processes. But I do not think that the same will be repeated in other foci of power. I don't think that the political and academic elites will be similarly influenced.

the third question is answered in the affirmative by environmentalist, civil libertarians and "bleeding hearts" liberal advocates of the former third world, now emerging, now submerging. They all contend that our ability to manipulate our environment through codes has reached a dangerous turning point. That the accumulated outcomes of our past activities endanger our very survival. I strongly disagree. But let us leave something to my next letter.

Awaiting your letter,

Sam

(continued)