Hyperdocumentation

3Hyperhuman or Hypermachine?

By the machine man makes up for the lack and defense of the organs of his body. By the written word, he makes up for those of his spirit. By the one and by the other, he equals himself, he becomes fungible and universalized. (Otlet 1935, p. 374, author’s translation)

The machine is often presented as an instrument to improve organizational efficiency and increase production. In documentary logic, it is a question of improving the treatment and the documentary circuit in an almost Taylorist or Fordist manner, if we take up the descriptions given by Paul Otlet or Suzanne Briet. The aim is clearly to improve documentary processes by drawing inspiration from the high-performance tools currently being developed in the industrial and administrative spheres:

In front of our eyes, a huge machinery for intellectual work is being built up. It is constituted by the combination of the various existing particular machines of which, in spite of the individualism and particularism of the inventors, the necessary connections are glimpsed. This machinery is today almost exclusively at the service of industry, commerce and finance. Tomorrow it will be put at the service of administration and scientific work, and then marvelous general results will be gathered from it. (Otlet 1934, p. 387, author’s translation)

The development of infrastructures for scientific and technical information appears more and more necessary at the time of the drafting of the Traité de Documentation ...