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21.11
A brief history of work
 
     
  Organized work is the very thing that distinguishes us from other primates is our society. Long before civilization, humans worked for the good of a collective unit.  
  Some of the unit hunted and gathered food, while others stood watch over vulnerable members of the unit and helped prepare food and repair tools. At the centre were the leader and his immediate blood relatives.  
  Thus from the very beginning:  
  •Work has always been specialized •Work has always been in the context of some organized collective (ie tribe, army, town, city, state, country) •Work allocation has always been dictated and controlled by people in power  
21.11.1 The evolutionary history of work specialization  
  One way to look at the history of work is to look at the evolution of types of work, what invention/innovation created the skills and how this changed the world.  
  From a handful of essential job types in an ancient tribe, modern human societies now employ people to perform tends of thousands of different types of work. How did it get to be so complex? What are the prototype and defining types of work that made this possible?  
  While this method of history is interesting as how different roles and job types have evolved, it inevitably leads to a simplified "always upward" curve of history, starting with unsophisticated tribal jobs through to medieval guilds and finally modern day specialized roles.  
  This unfortunately is a highly inaccurate method of history as medical practitioners 2000 years ago were performing precision operations with sophisticated medical tools that were only surpassed in technological skill less than fifty years ago. That the history of work is not so straight forward and involves to major regression and re-learning throughout history.  
21.11.2 Work and the system  
  Another way to look at the history of work is to look at the evolution of model systems of organized human effort that have opened up new ways of performing work.  
  There are a number of benefits of this model, particularly in looking at how organized work systems evolved from hunter gatherer to farmer and from farmer to traders and eventually to modern industrialists.  
  The problem of this method of viewing the history of work is the same as for individual job types, the implied assumption that all work systems have somehow always evolved forward from the beginning of time, so that from Ancient Greece, we evolved to Rome, then to Medieval craft, then to the Industrial age of mechanization and finally the modern age.  
  Again, this blinkered "always forward" view ignored the sophisticated systems and precision systems of ancient Rome that was then systematically dismantled by Christianity. It also ignores the fact that urban living today has still never recovered in either sophistication, wisdom, or planning to that of master Roman engineers 2,000 years ago.  
21.11.3 Power and work  
  While greater skills might afford an individual a level of usefulness within a unit, it has always been that the most physically powerful humans have controlled the nature of work for the rest of the unit.  
21.11.4 The Universal Industry Description (UID) method  
  To assist in viewing the different phases of work, a system developed wthin the Ucadian model known as the UID or Universal Industry Description is used at each major point in history, to define the development of work and industry/markets.  
  In terms of the 21st century, the following outlines the major markets at the moment:  
 
RecNo Industry
1 Energy and Water
2 Construction
3 Matter: Primary elements & minerals
4 Matter: Primary molecules & compounds
5 Materials: Primary Fibres & Textiles
6 Materials: Primary Metals and Alloys
7 Materials: Primary Clays and Stone
8 Products.Biologic & Food
9 Products.Biogenetic & Medicines
10 Products.Manufacture-Non-Meka
11 Products.Meka-Simple (non powered)
12 Products.Meka-Complex (non powered)
13 Products.Meka-Simple (powered)
14 Products.Meka-Complex (powered)
15 Products.Meka-Micro (powered)
16 Products.Meka-Autonomous-Intelligence (powered)
17 Products.Retail Sale
18 Communication and media
19 Services.Government
20 Services.Commercial
21 Services.Non-profit
22 Transport and Logistics
23 Non classificable
 
21.11.5 The EKELOS profile of market sophistication  
  In addition to the UID model of growth of markets, the EKELOS profile of market sophistication also provides a helpful profile as to the development of work in terms of the sophistication of economies over the ages.  
  The EKELOS profile rates the sophistication of economies based on the number and diversity of key markets in the trade (import/export) of good and services.  
 
Type Type_Description AverageSize
Primary Agriculture Agriculture 100
Primary Matter Minerals/Fuels 120
Primary Materials Materials 150
Complex Primary Combination of primaries 200
Simple Manufacture Parts/Electricals/Furniture 180
Complex Primary/Simple Manufacture Parts/Electricals/Furniture & primary 200
Complex Manufacture Engines/Scientific/Computer 220
Advanced Biologics Advanced agriculture & genetics 360
Advanced Matter Adanvanced matter and recycling 360
Advanced Materials Advanced materials 360
Advanced Manufacture Advanced manufacture 360
 
     
     
 
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