(2003-10-25) Mechanical World

I read something yesterday about people complaining about being treated like a machine. Odd thought: during the Enlightenment (see Quick Silver) we came up with lots of mostly-linear approaches to trying to understand/Control the world. But at this point most of what we spend time trying to understand is nonlinear/organic. The world isn't mechanical/hierarchical: except perhaps our attempts at Human System-s, like an Old Economy BigCo. Are attempts at maintaining Command And Control structures partially driven by a subconscious nostalgia for the days when we thought we'd end up understanding/controlling the whole world?