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Out of our control

Paul's Posts — 28 January 2012

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Out of our control

Yesterday’s post on our macro view of complexity brought to mind an interesting change in technology that took place in less than 100 years: we no longer have individual understanding of our machines.

When Emil Berliner and Thomas Edison came out with their Gramaphones (later called record players) they were able to grasp, manipulate and control every part in their mechanism:  the motors, the recording devices, the pickups, the speakers the cabinets themselves.  That is not generally true today where designers take prebuilt technology and put it together to form a new device.

Take our Network Bridge as an example.  Our chief engineer for embedded system, Dennis Kerrisk, has built this product from the ground up and has labored over every inch of it for several years now.  Yet, the truth is he has only labored over the grouping of complex modules and their interactions with each other.  Inside the Bridge are multiple complex systems that hundreds of designers have contributed to over many years.  No one person understands everything inside a PS Bridge.

No one person understands everything in a computer, in iTunes, in eLyric, in an iPod or even something as seemingly simple as a home router – heck, how about just a preamplifier?

When I was a teenager I felt comfortable opening up the hood of my car and fixing anything that was wrong with it – that certainly isn’t the case today – and probably wasn’t even the case back then if I had to dig deep.

In less than 100 years our technology, and the systems built with that technology, have moved from individual understanding to required group understanding.  I can’t image we’ll ever be able to go back.

As a matter of fact, I have no desire to go back (certainly not my ’57 Ford wagon).

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About Author

Paul McGowan

Paul McGowan is the CEO and co-founder of PS Audio Inc. a Boulder Colorado design and manufacturing company of high-end audio products and services. McGowan has been designing and building high-end products for nearly 40 years. Hobbies include skiing, music, hiking, artisan bread baking, kick boxing and cooking. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his 4 sons.

(2) Readers Comments

  1. Soundminded

    January 28, 2012 at 9:11 am

    This has been true since at least the beginning of the industrial revolution. For example, those who built the first engines may have had excellent understanding of mechanical engineering but little knowledge of metalurgy that made their engines possible. Those who design, construct, operate, and maintain buildings may know little about many of the systems in them or the structure itself. They depend on specialized knowledge of others. In a tall building such as the Empire State Building there is no single person who knows more than even a small percentage of everything about it. Those who understand the elevators have little knowledge of the air conditioning system. Those who understand the electrical system don’t know about the structural loading that keeps the building from collapsing under its own weight. Many details such as the kind of glass used in the windows are only generally known to the architects who specify it, its details left to experts in that area. The complexity of all modern constructs whether a space shuttle or sound system requires expertise in many disciplines and those capable of coordinating and integrating them.

    Large corporations know that for any effort on a project to be successful it will be the result of a team effort. Those who fail to grasp the importance of that are almost certain to fail. That is why modern management puts great stress on personal interactions and human relations. The larger and more complex the project, the more people are involved and the more opportunity there is for conflict.

  2. bfotk

    January 29, 2012 at 9:12 am

    Makezine.com has put together a Maker’s Bill of Rights which would more properly be called a Buyer’s Bill of Rights or a Bill of Demands for Makers. It relates to some of the “out of our control” issues Paul brings up.

    http://cdn.makezine.com/make/MAKERS_RIGHTS.pdf

    An motto from Makezine.com is: If you can’t open it up, you don’t own it.

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