Technology and Reality by James K. Feibleman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Uses of Perversity

As I write this review my newsfeed is following the testimony of the KPMG partners who were responsible for the auditing of the recently bankrupted Carillion corporation. Apparently the collapse of the company was as big a surprise to them as it was to everyone else. Their defense is that they can’t think of anything they would have done differently.

Oh dear. Yet another case of hapless accountants who have been sold a bill of goods by a well-paying client. Such is the way of the world. But surely to say that nothing different could have been done is not just self-serving but nihilistic in the extreme.

I suggest that the KPMG folk read James Feibleman’s book to get a little perspective as well as insight about their situation. Among other things Technology and Reality would give more than a few hints about the kind of problem they are confronting. This is essentially neither one of management dishonesty (although possibly that too), nor of technical competence by the army of young associates who have been immersing themselves in the lake of Carillion’s financial paperwork. The problem is metaphysical. And accountants don’t have much time for metaphysics despite the fact they are profoundly enmeshed in a metaphysical quandary.

Feibleman’s discussion of metaphysics is based on a crucial insight: human beings and all of human society are the product of the tools - including language and other artifacts - that human beings and their society have created. This insight is a generalization of Martin Heidegger’s famous dictum that “Language speaks Man.” But Feibleman goes beyond Heidegger in suggesting that not only does technology shape personality and culture, it is also trap for those so shaped, and that many, like the folk at KPMG, are unable to free themselves from its powerful metaphysical grasp.

Feibleman addresses the two primary metaphysical issues that are at the heart of KPMG’s problem: the ontological issues of the existence of things like valid contracts and the integrity of structural concrete; and the epistemological issues of the integrity and meaning of the financial numbers they, and the company’s management, receive. It is this second set of issues, the truth of the numbers, that is likely to be the reason for their professional despair. “We rely on what we’re given,” they say, “You can’t expect us to question every accounting entry in the company.” And they’re probably right.

The fact is that, as in any modern company, indeed as in any area of inquiry including all of science, the truth of any ‘perception’ has passed long ago from that which can be felt, or seen, or heard, or even smelt. Between any event - conceptual, physical, abstract or concrete - and its transformation into meaningful communication, lies a series of complex instruments, controlled by at least equally complex people. The only way to get such complexity to work is through rigid conformity to standards established by, among others, the accountants. And rest assured, whatever the outcome of the Carillon hearings, greater accounting uniformity and consistency will be urged and approved by all concerned.

But Feibleman’s argument shows how this response is precisely the wrong one. However much accounting is implicated in the demise of Carillion, the probability of a recurrence of this sort of disaster is only increased by increased conformity to procedure. His idea is that it is only through a culture of perversity, that is, individuals who challenge established procedure, that whatever mistakes made within the company can be revealed. Perversity is, according to Feibleman, “the whole drive of the experimental method.” Perversity allows “the separation of the leukocytes from the leprechauns.” Or in accounting terms, perhaps, expenses masquerading as investment.

Perversity, doing the unexpected just because it is unexpected for example, is indispensable in a society which depends profoundly on instrumentation not direct experience to make its judgments and control its actions. What KPMG is facing is the same generic problem we all face increasingly with ‘fake news’. The further that technology in the form of internet social media and pop-up news sites invades the space between us and events, the more we all need to become somewhat more perverse than we have been. In brief, the solution is not more technology, procedural or physical, but the encouragement of ‘dissidents’ within the organisation. It would be interesting to see how the management pundits who preach uniformity react to this sort of counter-cultural message. Unfortunately they don’t seem to be interested in metaphysics either.

Remarkably for a Kluwer publication, there is no date of publication in the colophon of this book. Feibleman’s preface is dated 1979, but the Library of Congress publication date is 1982. In any case the age of the book shouldn’t put the reader off. It is still the most systematic, readable, wittiest and overall best philosophical analysis of technology I have come across anywhere.

[Latest on the Carillion mess: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...]

[Even more vindication for Feibleman’s analysis: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...]

Postscript: Donald Trump’s rampant mendacity seems to have sparked renewed interest in the issues of epistemology. See: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

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