It does not matter
at all how the first man, the first time-binder, was
produced; the fact remains that he was somewhere, somehow produced.
To know anything that is to-day of fundamental interest about
man, we have to analyse man in three coordinates-in three capacities;
namely, his chemistry, his activities in space, and especially
his activities in time; whereas in the study of animals we have
to consider only two factors: their chemistry and their activities
in space.
Let us imagine
that the aboriginal-original human specimen was one of two brother
apes, A and B; they were alike in every respect;
both were animal space-binders; but something strange happened
to B; he became the first time-binder, a human. No matter
how, this "something" made the change in him that lifted him
to a higher dimension; it is enough that in some-wise, over
and above his animal capacity for binding space, there was superadded
the marvelous new capacity for binding-time. He had thus a new
faculty, he belonged to a new dimension; but, of course, he
did not realize it; and because he had this new capacity he
was able to analyze his brother "A"; he observed "A
is my brother; he is an animal; but he is my brother; therefore,
I AM AN ANIMAL." This fatal first conclusion, reached
by false analogy, by neglecting a fact, has been the chief source
of human woe for half a million years and it still survives.
The time-binding capacity, first manifest in B, increased
more and more, with the days and each generation, until in the
course of centuries man felt himself increasingly somehow different
from the animal, but he could not explain. He said to himself,
"If I am an animal there is also in me something higher, a spark
of some thing supernatural."
With this conclusion
he estranged himself, as something apart from nature, and formulated
the impasse, which put him in a cul-de-sac of a double life.
He was neither true to the "supernatural" which he could not
know and therefore, could not emulate, nor was he true to the
"animal" which he scorned. Having put himself outside the "natural
laws," he was not really true to any law and condemned himself
to a life of hypocrisy, and established speculative, artificial,
unnatural laws.
"How blind our
familiar assumptions make us! Among the animals, man, at least,
has long been wont to regard himself as a being quite apart
from and not as part of the cosmos round about him. From this
he has detached himself in thought, he has estranged and objectified
the world, and lost the sense that he is of it. And this age-long
habit and point of view, which has fashioned his life and controlled
his thought, lending its characteristic mark and color to his
whole philosophy and art and learning, is still maintained,
partly because of its convenience, no doubt, and partly by force
of inertia and sheer conservatism, in the very teeth of the
strongest probabilities of biological science. Probably no other
single hypothesis has less to recommend it, and yet no other
so completely dominates the human mind." (Cassius J. Keyser,
loc. cit.) And this monstrous conception is current to-day:
millions still look upon man as a mixture of animal and something
supernatural.
There is no doubt
that the engineering of human society is a difficult and complicated
problem of tremendous ethical responsibility, for it involves
the welfare of mankind throughout an unending succession of
generations. The science of Human Engineering can not be built
upon false conceptions of human nature. It can not be built
on the conception of man as a kind of animal; it can not be
built on the conception of man as a mixture of natural and supernatural.
It must be built upon the conception of man as being at once
natural and higher in dimensionality than the animals. It must
be built upon the scientific conception of mankind as characterized
by their time-binding capacity and function. This conception
radically alters our whole view of human life, human society,
and the world.
It must be obvious
to any one that time-binding is the only natural criterion and
standard for the time-binding class of life. This mighty term-time-binding-when
comprehended, will be found to embrace the WHOLE of the natural
laws, the natural ethics, the natural philosophy, the natural
sociology, the natural economics, the natural governance, to
be brought into the education of time-binders; then really peaceful
and progressive civilization, without: periodical collapses
and violent readjustments, will commence; not before. Everything
which is really time-binding is in the HUMAN DIMENSION;
therefore, it will represent every quality that is implied in
such words as-good, just, right, beautiful; while everything
that is merely space-binding will be classified as "animal"
and be thus assessed at its proper value. Those ignorant "masters
of our destinies" who regard humans as animals or as monstrous
hybrids of natural and supernatural must be dethroned by scientific
education.
Humans can be
literally poisoned by false ideas and false teachings. Many
people have a just horror at the thought of putting poison into
tea or coffee, but seem unable to realize that, when they teach
false ideas and false doctrines, they are poisoning the time-binding
capacity of their fellow men and women. One has to stop and
think! There is nothing mystical about the fact that ideas and
words are energies which powerfully affect the physico-chemical
base of our time-binding activities. Humans are thus made untrue
to "human nature." Hypnotism is a known fact. It has been proved
that a man can be so hypnotized that in a certain time which
has been suggested to him, he will murder or commit arson or
theft; that, under hypnotic influence, the personal morale of
the individual has only a small influence upon his conduct;
the subject obeys the hypnotic suggestions, no matter how immoral
they are. The conception of man as a mixture of animal and supernatural
has for ages kept human beings under the deadly spell of the
suggestion that, animal selfishness and animal greediness are
their essential character, and the spell has operated to suppress
their REAL HUMAN NATURE and to prevent it from expressing itself
naturally and freely.
On the other hand,
when human beings are educated to a lively realization that
they are by nature time-binding creatures, then they
will spontaneously live in accordance with their time-binding
nature, which, as I have said, is the source and support of
the highest ideals.
What is achieved
in blaming a man for being selfish and greedy if he acts under
the influence of a social environment and education which teach
him that he is an animal and that selfishness and greediness
are of the essence of his nature?
Even so eminent
a philosopher and psychologist as Spencer tells us: "Of self-evident
truths so dealt with, the one which here concerns us is that
a creature must live before it can act.... Ethics has to recognize
the truth that egoism comes before altruism. This is true for
ANIMALS, because animals die out from lack of food when their
natural supply of it is insufficient because they have NOT THE
CAPACITY TO PRODUCE ARTIFICIALLY. But it is not true for the
HUMAN DIMENSION.
Why not? Because
humans through their time-binding capacity are first of all
creators and so their number is not controlled by the
supply of unaided nature, but only by men's artificial productivity,
which is THE MATERIALIZATION OF THEIR TIME-BINDING CAPACITY.
Man, therefore,
by the very intrinsic character of his being, MUST ACT FIRST,
IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO LIVE (through the action of parents-or
society) which is not the case with animals. The misunderstanding
of this simple truth is largely accountable for the evil of
our ethical and economic systems or lack of systems. As a matter
of fact, if humanity were to live in complete accord
with the animal conception of man, artificial production-time-binding
production-would cease and ninety per cent of mankind would
perish by starvation. It is just because human beings are not
animals but are time-binders-not mere finders but creators of
food and shelter-that they are able to live in such vast numbers.
Here even the
blind must see the effect of higher dimensionality, and this
effect becomes in turn the cause of other effects which produce
still others, and so on in an endless chain. WE LIVE BECAUSE
WE PRODUCE, BECAUSE WE ARE ACTING IN TIME AND ARE NOT MERELY
ACTING IN SPACE-BECAUSE MAN IS NOT A KIND OF ANIMAL. It is all
so simple, if only we apply a little sound logic in our thinking
about human nature and human affairs. If human ethics are to
be human, are to be in the human dimension, the postulates of
ethics must be changed; FOR HUMANITY IN ORDER TO LIVE MUST ACT
FIRST; the laws of ethics-the laws of right living-are natural
laws-laws of human nature-laws having their whole source
and sanction in the time-binding capacity and time-binding activity
peculiar to man. Human excellence is excellence in time-binding,
and must be measured and rewarded by time-binding standards
of worth.
Humanity, in order
to live, must produce creatively and therefore must be guided
by applied science, by technology; and this means that the so-called
social sciences of ethics, jurisprudence, psychology, economics,
sociology, politics, and government must be emancipated from
medieval metaphysics; they must be made scientific; they must
be technologized; they must be made to progress and to
function in the proper dimension-the human dimension and not
that of animals: they must be made time-binding sciences.
Can this be done?
I have no doubt that it can. For what is human life after all?
To a general in
the battlefield, human life is a factor which, if properly used,
can destroy the enemy. To an engineer human life is an equivalent
to energy, or a capacity to do work, mental or muscular, and
the moment something is found to be a source of energy and to
have the capacity of doing work, the first thing to do, from
the engineer's point of view, is to analyse the generator with
a view to discovering how best to conserve it, to improve it,
and bring it to the level of maximum productivity. Human beings
are very complicated energy-producing batteries differing widely
in quality and magnitude of productive power. Experience has
shown that these batteries are, first of all, chemical batteries
producing a mysterious energy. If these batteries are not supplied
periodically with a more or less constant quantity of some chemical
elements called food and air, the batteries will cease to function-they
will die. In the examination of the structure of these batteries
we find that the chemical base is very much accentuated all
through the structure. This chemical generator is divided into
branches each of which has a very different role which it must
perform in harmony with all the others. The mechanical parts
of the structure are built in conformity to the rules of mechanics
and are automatically furnished with lubrication and with chemical
supplies for automatically renewing worn-out parts. The chemical
processes not only deposit particles of mass for the structure
of the generator but produce some very powerful unknown kinds
of energies or vibrations which make all the chemical parts
function; we find also a mysterious apparatus with a complex
of wires which we call brain, glands, and nerves; and, finally,
these human batteries have the remarkable capacity of reproduction.
These functions
are familiar to everybody. From the knowledge of other physical,
mechanical and chemical phenomena of nature, we must come to
the conclusion, that this human battery is the most perfect
example of a complex engine; it has all the peculiarities of
a chemical battery combined with a generator of a peculiar energy
called life; above all, it has mental or spiritual capacities;
it is thus equipped with both mental and mechanical means for
producing work. The parts and functions of this marvelous engine
have been the subject of a vast amount of research in various
special branches of science. A very noteworthy fact is that
both the physical work and the mental work of this human engine
are always accompanied by both physical and chemical changes
in the structure of its machinery- corresponding to the wear
and tear of non-living engines. It also presents certain sexual
and spiritual phenomena that have a striking likeness to certain
phenomena, especially wireless phenomena, to electricity and
to radium. This human engine-battery is of unusual strength,
durability and perfection; and yet it is very liable to damage
and even wreckage, if not properly used. The controlling factors
are very delicate and so the engine is very capricious. Very
special training and understanding are necessary for its control.
The reader may
wish to ask: What is the essence of the time-binding power of
Man? Talk of essences is metaphysical-it is not scientific.
Let me explain by an example.
What is electricity?
The scientific answer is: electricity is that which exhibits
such and such phenomena. Electricity means nothing but a certain
group of phenomena called electric. We are studying electricity
when we are studying those phenomena. Thus it is in physics-there
is no talk of essences. So, too, in Human Engineering-we shall
not talk of the essence of time-binding but only of the phenomena
and the laws thereof. What has led to the development of electric
appliances is knowledge of electrical phenomena-not metaphysical
talk about the electrical essence. And what will lead to the
science and art of Human Engineering is knowledge of time-binding
phenomena-not vain babble about an essence of time-binding
power. There is no mystery about the word time-binding. Some
descriptive term was necessary to indicate that human capacity
which discriminates human beings from animals and marks man
as man. For that use -the appropriateness of the term time-binding
becomes more and more manifest upon reflection.
What are the conditions
of life upon this earth? Is there war or peace in daily life
? All living beings require food; they multiply in a geometrical
ratio; and so the natural productivity of the soil becomes increasingly
inadequate. The tendency to increase in geometrical ratio is
true of all life-vegetable? animal and human, but the tendency
is checked by various counteracting influences, natural and
artificial. A short time ago these checks had so operated to
annul the law of increase as almost to stop the growth of human
population. It is only by the time-binding capacity of man-by
scientific progress and technological invention-that the checks
have been overcome. And so in the last century the population
of Europe increased more than it had increased in several centuries
before. Impoverished soil, excessive heat or cold, excessive
moisture, the lack of rainfall, and many other factors are hostile
to life. It is evident, therefore, that human life must especially
struggle for existence; it must carry on a perpetual contest
for self preservation. It seems obvious that, if there is perpetual
war in every-day life, war methods must be applied.
We have just passed
through a tremendous worldwide military war and we developed
special ways of producing power to overcome the enemy. We were
thus driven to discover some of the hidden sources of power
and all of our old habits and ideas were bent toward military
methods and military technology. The war of every-day life against
hostile elements is war for the subjugation of physical nature
and not for the conquest of people. It is a war carried on by
the time-binding power of men pitted against natural obstacles,
and its progressive triumph means progressive advancement in
human weal.
The lesson of
the World War should not be missed through failure to analyse
it. When nations war with nations, the normal daily war of millions
and millions of individuals to subjugate natural resources to
human uses is interrupted, and the slow-gathered fruits of measureless
toil are destroyed.
But peaceful war,
war for the conquest of nature' involves the use of methods
of technology and, what is even more important, technological
philosophy, law and ethics.
What I want to
emphasize in this little book, is the need of a thoroughgoing
revision of our ideas; and the revision must be made by engineering
minds in order that our ideas may be made to match facts. If
we are ill, we consult a physician or a surgeon, not a charlatan.
We must learn that, when there is trouble with the producing
power of the world, we have to consult an engineer, an expert
on power. Politicians, diplomats, and lawyers do not understand
the problem. What I am advocating is that we must learn to ask
those who know how to produce things, instead of asking those
whose profession is to fight for the division of things produced
by nature or by other human beings.
As a matter of
fact our civilization has been for a long time disorganized
to the point of disease. Lately through the whirl of changing
conditions, due to the great release of power in the new-born
giant technology, the disorganization has become acute.
The sick seldom
know the cure for themselves. If the cure is to be enduring,
we have to go to the source, and this can be done only by men
familiar, not only with effects but also with the causes.
Money is not the
wealth of a nation, but production is wealth; so ordered
production is the main object for humanity. But to have
the maximum of production, it is necessary to have production
put on a sound basis. No mere preaching of brotherly love, or
class hatred, will produce one single brick for the building
of the future temple of human victory-the temple of human
civilization. Ordered production demands analysis of basic
facts.
This era is essentially
an industrial era. To produce we have to have: (1) raw material
or soil; (2) instruments for production-tools and machines;
and (3) the application of power.
The three requirements
may be briefly characterized and appraised as follows:
(1) Raw material
and soil are products of nature; humanity simply took them and
had the use of them for nothing, because it is impossible to
call a prayer of thanksgiving (if any) addressed to a "creator"
as payment to gods or men. But raw material and soil, in the
conditions in which nature produces them, are of very little
immediate benefit to humanity, because untilled soil produces
very little food for humans, and raw material such as wood,
coal, oil, iron, copper, etc., are completely useless to humanity
until after human work is applied to them. It is necessary to
cut a tree for the making of timber; it is necessary to excavate
the minerals, and even then, only by applying further human
work is it possible to make them available for any human use.
So, it is obvious that even raw materials in the form in which
nature has produced them, are mostly of no value and unavailable
for use, unless reproduced through the process of "human
creative production." Therefore, we may well conclude that "raw
material" must be divided into two very distinct classes: (a)
raw material as produced by nature-nature's free gift-which
in its original form and place has practically no use-value;
and (b) raw material reproduced by man's mental and muscular
activities, by his "time-binding" capacities. Raw materials
of the second class have an enormous use-value; indeed they
make the existence of humanity possible.
As to the second
requirement for production, namely:
(2) Tools and
machines, it is obvious that "tools and machines" are made of
raw material by human work, mental and muscular.
And, finally:
(3) The application
of power. Different sources of natural energy and power are
known. The most important available source of energy for this
globe is the sun-the heat of the sun. This solar heat is the
origin of water power, of wind power, and of the power bound
up in coal, of the chemistry, growth and transforming agency
of plants.*
All foods which
the animals as well as the humans use are, already, the result
of the solar energy transformed into what may be called chemical
energy. Transformation of energies is building up of life.
It is to be clearly
seen that the only source of energy which can be directly appropriated
and used by man or animal is vegetable food found in the wilderness;
no other sources of power are available for direct use;
they have first to be mastered and directed by human brain.
The same is true in regard to the getting of animal food, the
creation of a water- or windmill, or a steam engine, or the
art of using a team of horses, or a bushel of wheat; these are
not available except by the use of the human "time-binding"
power.
This short survey
of facts, known to everybody, brings us to the conclusion that
all problems of production come ultimately to the analysis of
(1) Natural resources
of raw material and natural energy, freely supplied by nature,
which, as we have seen, in the form as produced by nature alone,
have very little or no value for humanity;
(2) The activity
of the human brain (because human muscles are always directed
by the brain) which gives value to the otherwise useless raw
materials and energies.
Hence, to understand
the processes of production, it is essential to realize that
humanity is able to survive only by virtue of the capacity of
humans to exploit natural resources-to convert the products
of nature into forms available for human needs. If humanity
had only the capacity of apes, depending exclusively on wild
fruits and the like, they would be confined to those comparatively
small regions of the globe where the climate and the fertility
of the soil are specially favorable. But in the case supposed,
humans would not be humans, they would not be time-binders-they
would be animals-mere space-binders.
There are other
facts which must be kept constantly in mind. One of them is
that, in the world in which we live, there are natural laws
of inorganic as well as organic phenomena. Another of the facts
is, as before said, that the human class of life has the peculiar
capacity of establishing the social laws and customs which regulate
and influence its destinies, which help or hinder the processes
of production upon which the lives and happiness of mankind
essentially and fundamentally depend.
It must not be
lost sight of in this connection that the human class of life
is a part and a product of nature, and that, therefore, there
must be fundamental laws which are natural for this class
of life. A stone obeys the natural laws of stones; a liquid
conforms to the natural law of liquids; a plant, to the natural
laws of plants; an animal, to the natural laws of animals; it
follows inevitably that there must be natural laws for humans.
But here the problem
becomes more complicated; for the stone, the plant and the animal
do not possess the intellectual power to create and initiate
and so must blindly obey the laws that are natural for
them; they are not free to determine their own destinies. Not
so with man; man has the capacity and he can, through ignorance
or neglect or mar-intent, deviate from, or misinterpret, the
natural laws for the human class of life. Just therein lies
the secret and the source of human chaos and woe-a fact of such
tremendous importance that it cannot be overemphasized and it
seems impossible to evade it longer. To discover the nature
of Man and the laws of that nature, marks the summit
of human enterprises. For to solve this problem is to open
the way to everything which can be of importance to humanity-to
human welfare and happiness.
The great problem
has been felt as a powerful impulse throughout the ages of human
striving, for in all times it has been evident to thinkers that
upon the right solution of the problem must forever depend the
welfare of mankind. Many "solutions" have been offered; and,
though they have differed widely, they agree in one respect-they
have had a common fate-the fate of being false. What has been
the trouble? The trouble has been, in every instance, a radical
misconception of what a human being really is. The problem is
to discover the natural laws of the human class of life. All
the "solutions" offered in the course of history and those which
are current to-day are of two and only two kinds-zoological
and mythological. The zoological solutions are those
which grow out of the false conception according to which human
beings are animals; if humans are animals, the laws of human
nature are the laws of animal nature; and so the social "sciences"
of ethics, law, politics, economics, government become nothing
but branches of zoology; as sciences, they are the studies of
animal life; as arts, they are the arts of managing and controlling
animals; according to this zoological philosophy, human wisdom
about human beings is animal wisdom about animals.
The mythological
"solutions" are those which start with the monstrous conception
according to which human beings have no proper place in nature
but are mixtures of natural and supernatural- unions
or combinations of animality and divinity. Such "solutions"
contain no conception of natural law; scientifically
judged, they are mythological absurdities-muddle-headed chattering
of crude and irresponsible metaphysics-well-meaning no doubt,
but silly, and deadly in their effects upon the interests of
mankind, vitiating ethics, law, economics, politics and government.
Such have been
and still are the regnant philosophies of human nature. What
is the remedy? How are the laws of human nature to be discovered?
It is evident
that the enterprise, like all other scientific enterprises,
must be based upon and guided by realities. It is essential
to realize that the great, central, dominant, all-embracing
reality is the reality of human nature. If we misconceive
this fundamental matter, the enterprise must fail; that is both
logically clear and clear in the sad light of history; but if
we conceive it aright, we may confidently expect the enterprise
to prosper. That is why, in the chapter on "The Classes of Life,"
I have laid so much stress on the absolute necessity of conceiving
Man as being what he really is, and not something else. And
we have discovered what man is: we have discovered that man
is characterized by the capacity or power to bind time, and
so we have defined humanity as the time-binding class
of life. That concept is fundamental. It contains the germ of
the science and art of Human Engineering. The problem of discovering
and applying the "laws of human nature" is the problem Of discovering
and applying to the conduct of life the laws of time-binding-of
time-binding activity-of time-binding energy. This fact
must be firmly seized and kept steadily in mind.
Energy, we have
noted, is the capacity to do work. In human economy work may
be (1) useful or (2) neutral or (3) harmful.
These words have no significance except in human economy.
The energy of the human intellect is a time-binding energy,
for it is able to direct, to use, to transform other energies.
This time-binding energy is of higher rank-of higher dimensionality-than
the other natural energies which it directs, controls, uses,
and transforms. This higher energy-which is commonly called
the mental or spiritual power of man-is time-binding
because it makes past achievements live in the present and present
activities in time-to-come. It is an energy that initiates;
it is an energy that creates; it is an energy that can understand
the past and foretell the future-it is both historian and prophet;
it is an energy that loads abstract time-the vehicle
of events-with an ever-increasing burden of intellectual achievements,
of spiritual wealth, destined for the civilization of posterity.
And what is the natural law of the increase? What is the natural
law of human advancements in all great matters of human concern
?
The question is
of utmost importance both theoretically and practically, for
the law-whatever it be -is a natural law-a law of human
nature-a law of the time-binding energy of man. What is the
law? We have already noted the law of arithmetical progression
and the law of geometric progression; we have seen the immense
difference between them; and we have seen that the natural law
of human progress in each and every cardinal matter is a law
like that of a rapidly increasing geometric progression. In
other words, the natural law of human progress-the natural law
of amelioration in human affairs-the fundamental law of human
nature-the basic law of the time-binding energy peculiar to
man-is a Logarithmic law-a law of logarithmic increase. I beg
the reader not to let the term bewilder him but to make it his
own. It is easy to understand; and its significance is mighty
and everlasting. Even its mathematical formulation can be understood
by boys and girls. Let us see how the formulation looks.
Suppose PR
to denote the amount of progress made in some important
field by a given generation-which we may call the "first" generation;
where R denotes the common ratio-the ratio of improvement-that
is, the number by which the progress of one generation must
be multiplied to give the amount of progress made by the next
generation; then the amount of progress made by the second generation
will be PR2; that made by the third generation
will be PR3; and so on; now denote by T
the number of generations, counting the first one and all that
follow in endless succession. Then the following series will
show the law of human progress in the chosen field:
(PRT-P)