CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Immortal Organizations, Design of
Preserving Knowledge Over Time

0504 -
0504 -    ..
0505 - Summary/Objective
0506 -
050601 - Follow up ref SDS 5 0000. ref SDS 4 0000.
050602 -
050603 - The work of Rational Synthesis is never ending, since
050604 - improving man's ability to be rational and to take control over his
050605 - intellectual, social, and cultural evolution will never be complete.
050606 - It will always need to adapt.
050608 -  ..
050609 - In order for that to happen, it must be possible to build
050610 - organizations that can direct activites with consistent purpose over
050611 - centuries, perhaps millenia. Thus, the concept of an immortal
050612 - organization.
050613 -
050615 -  ..
0507 -
0508 -
0509 - Discussion
0510 -
051002 -  ..
051003 - Examples for Study
051004 -
051006 -     ..
051007 -    The Catholic Church
051008 -
051009 -    This is probably the most easily recognized example of an
051010 -    organization existing for long periods of time. There is question
051011 -    about its ability to carry out long term goals, but it does preserve
051012 -    principles, perhaps too well.
051013 -
051014 -
051016 -     ..
051017 -    Secret Societies
051018 -
051019 -    The Freemasons are said to have evolved from the Knights Templar,
051020 -    which may have had even older roots. If the data in "The Gods of
051021 -    Eden" is accurates some of these secret societies have existed for
051022 -    thousands of years with their purposes intact.
051024 -     ..
051025 -    By their nature, investigating how they did it could prove
051026 -    challenging to impossible.
051027 -
051028 -
051030 -     ..
051031 -    Martial Arts Schools
051032 -
051033 -    Some martial arts schools have existed for centuries, evolving their
051034 -    techniques only slowly, and passing the art from generation to
051035 -    generation.
051036 -
051037 -    Since the martial arts are essentially impossible to learn from
051038 -    written materials only, the information is passed by being taught to
051039 -    students, often parts of it to different students.
051040 -
051041 -
051043 -     ..
051044 -    Scientology
051045 -
051046 -    The structure of Scientology organizations and the rationality for
051047 -    that structure is easy enough to obtain -- at least the surface
051048 -    information.
051049 -
051050 -    In one of his lectures, Ron noted a civilization that lasted for 250
051051 -    million years (exact figure?), and that, since he didn't intend for
051052 -    the Church to be such a fly-by-night outfit, he had added the
051053 -    Qualification Division that was missing from that organization.
051055 -     ..
051056 -    The Scientology Org Board and its principles is an excellent
051057 -    starting point - it may be adequate. It seems that there needs to
051058 -    be a mechanism for evolution emphasized. It exists, but not
051059 -    explicitly within the organizing pronciples.
051060 -
051061 -
051062 -
051064 -  ..
051065 - Common Principles
051066 -
051067 -
051069 -     ..
051070 -    Replacement and Renewal
051071 -
051072 -    Any organism must grow or die. Successful organizations have
051073 -    procedures for brining in new members faster than old ones can leave
051074 -    and new ones fail to pan out. Their membership grows over time,
051075 -    possibly slowly.
051076 -
051077 -
051079 -     ..
051080 -    Adherence to Priciples and Dedication to Vision
051081 -
051082 -    Every group begins as a covenanting group, willing to do what must be
051083 -    done to pursue a goal or a vision.
051084 -
051085 -    In order for an organization to persist for long periods of time,
051086 -    there must be a way to imbue the new members with the principles and
051087 -    vision of the organization unchanged.
051089 -     ..
051090 -    The most frequently used approach is an apprenticeship or initiate
051091 -    system. New memebers are admitted further into the group as they
051092 -    master the information on which the group is based. For an apprentice
051093 -    this is elements of the craft; for an initiate, it is knowledge of
051094 -    the mysteries, and perhaps skill in their application.
051096 -     ..
051097 -    Both system rely on a body of knowledge, and mentoring from advanced
051098 -    members, often one-on-one.
051100 -     ..
051101 -    Thus, a prerequisite to the immortal organization is a system of
051102 -    knowledge organization and preservation, ref SDS 5 0001.
051104 -     ..
051105 -    For ancient societies, the amount of knowledge was manageable by well
051106 -    trained human memory and numerous books in the form of libraries.
051107 -    Even for them, it got out of hand.
051108 -
051109 -
051111 -     ..
051112 -    Periodic Revisiting, Alignment, and Renewal
051113 -
051114 -    Although seldom done by design, long-lived organizations appear to
051115 -    have someone every couple of generations who revisits all of the
051116 -    material, understands and extends it, organizes it, and pulls it back
051117 -    to its root principles with only those changes that are actually
051118 -    productive. This is sometimes done by a single individual or a small
051119 -    group. It doesn't seem that committees ever succeed in this attempt.
051121 -     ..
051122 -    Most times the refactoring is of only a part of the knowledge, as it
051123 -    takes a truly exceptional individual to master the entire body of
051124 -    knowledge.
051125 -
051126 -
051128 -     ..
051129 -    Knowledge Loss and Meaning Drift
051130 -
051131 -    In spite of everything, knoweldge does get lost and altered.
051132 -    Information is only partially transmitted. Pricniples and reasons why
051133 -    get lost in transmitting the how.
051134 -
051135 -    Where the knowledge is something that is discoverable, it is
051136 -    sometimes rediscovered repeatedly after being lost.
051138 -     ..
051139 -    The fact that security has often played a significant role in the
051140 -    organizations themselves contributes to the knowledge loss. Often the
051141 -    knowledge is ecnrypted or hidden in various ways.
051143 -     ..
051144 -    Symbolism is one way of disguising secrets.  If you truly understand
051145 -    the meaning of the symbols, a discussion of them is meaningful,
051146 -    otherwise it is of no benefit.  In some instances, the meaning of the
051147 -    symbols gets lost, and new meanings are assigned, losing the old
051148 -    knowledge.  In some cases, the fact that they are symbols is lost, and
051149 -    the sybolsare treated as literal, which confuses matters no end.  In
051150 -    those rare instances where some of the meaning of the symbols can be
051151 -    rediscovered, large amounts of knowledge can be recovered from the
051152 -    recorded information.
051153 -
051154 -
051156 -     ..
051157 -    Qualifications Division
051158 -
051159 -    It is known by many names, and often is isn't even an official part
051160 -    of the organization, but all organizations that survive have ways to
051161 -    insure that the central tenets are followed, and that the organizaion
051162 -    itself improves over time.
051164 -     ..
051165 -    When done properly, there are several sorts of correction made when an
051166 -    error is discovered:
051167 -
051168 -    1.  The error itself is corrected - the product.
051169 -
051170 -    2.  The people responsible for the error - the machine.
051172 -         ..
051173 -    3.  The organization or its policies.
051175 -     ..
051176 -    A fuller discussion of the tools and techniques will be done at
051177 -    another time.
051178 -
051179 -
051180 -
051181 -
051182 -
051183 -
051184 -
051185 -
051186 -
0512 -