The proliferation of material and symbolic vacuums; seems to fall philosophically somewhere between Lao Tzu (void) and Cantor’s Dust (infinite extensibility by iterative negation). It may be that at a certain inflection point in the historical or procedural sedimentation of technological, organisational and economic complexity that adaptive growth can be largely abstracted from (a) concrete or material means of wealth-generation; the material source still exists but the administrative responsibility is displaced out to sub-contractors, peripheral interests or other vectors of digital activity.
This represents an implementation and value-extraction from a (quite literal) meta-narrative of commercial advantage-seeking; a traditional business model supplanted (or supplemented) by the logical extensibility of organisationally sophisticated methods through which the messy practice of logistics is diminished. To some (limited) extent: profit without full managerial or administrative responsibility.
If this trend represents a second-order logic of organisational structure, I wonder what may be the next.
Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that allows the wheel to function.We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.We fashion wood for a house,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes it liveable.We work with the substantial,
but the emptiness is what we use.Laozi, Tao Te Ching
