{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2","title":"Time The Modern and Postmodern Experience","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2","id":"d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2","uuid":"d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2","title":"Time The Modern and Postmodern Experience","normalized_title":"timethemodernandpostmodernexperience","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"isbns":[],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":178,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%20The%20Modern%20and%20Postmodern%20Experience","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d3ee5fbb-1124-4191-99e1-3139801e0da2/search"},"page":{"printed_page":65,"pdf_page":65,"physical_index":65,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"e7a95f9d698bf5be710a51c0a723c203f2fb4454189a960700d37e22c011409b"},"chapter":"An Embarrassment of Proper Times:","content":"In the meantime, however, it is necessary to cope with the surprises which have already occurred. In retrospect, one of the biggest surprises is probably the realization that even progress can age. In Robert Jungk's pun, progress has become pro-dross. Incessant innovation creates new problems of obsolescence. Ageing and obsolete industries, the regions in which they are established and on which they have left their mark, like the increasingly ubiquitous rubbish dumps, are a conspicuous expression of the other side of innovation. Storing the most dangerous waste materials has become a detective game with lethal consequences in the oceans. If the predictions about the end of the current Kondratiev cycle are to be believed, around the year 1995 not only will a new phase of intensive technological innovation begin, but many firms will also ‘die’ as organizational units, and many jobs will be 'destroyed'. The social cost of these and other ageing processes is high. Just like the phenomenon of human and social ageing in view of an ageing population in the industrial nations, it is only slowly coming to public awareness. This results in a new social, and not just individual, experience. The level of expectations of a not inconsiderable minority is shrinking solely because of their advanced age, while the ageing process of technologies is being accelerated by succeeding technological innovations.\n\nAgeing is measured on a socially accepted scale of reference, which is generally the chronological one of calendar time. But this level of abstraction is not very meaningful when it is a question of grasping the social and individual differences which come to light. Above all, the cultural definition intervenes which distinguishes ageing from 'becoming obsolete'. Becoming obsolete means ageing more quickly than is to be expected from the average rates of ageing or is prescribed by the norm. If technologies, firms and regions age more quickly and clearly 'become obsolete' today, just like people's professional qualifications and the knowledge acquired in their lifetime, then it seems reasonable to suppose that the norm of ageing changes according to the amount of innovation. The faster the rate of innovation, the faster the growth of proneness to obsolescence.\n\nFrom the Future to the Extended Present\n\n65","previous_page":64,"next_page":66}