This document summarizes Alfred Korzybski's realization about "time-binding" while looking down at the streets of New York City from the top of the Woolworth Building in 1919 or 1920. As he observed the tiny humans below, he pondered two questions: what makes humans human, and why do we progress in some areas like engineering but fail in other areas like building societies. This led him to realize that humans have the unique ability to accumulate and build upon the knowledge and achievements of previous generations, which he termed "time-binding." He later developed this insight into a theory that human progress occurs through coordinating ideas with realities in a non-linear, exponential fashion over generations.
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer born in 1890 who was influential during the Harlem Renaissance. He published his first book of poems in 1912 and continued writing throughout his life, focusing on themes of the working class and black experience. McKay lived for periods in the US and Europe, becoming a US citizen in 1940, but never returned to his native Jamaica, dying of heart disease in 1948.
This document summarizes Alfred Korzybski's realization about "time-binding" while looking down at the streets of New York City from the top of the Woolworth Building in 1919 or 1920. As he observed the tiny humans below, he pondered two questions: what makes humans human, and why do we progress in some areas like engineering but fail in other areas like building societies. This led him to realize that humans have the unique ability to accumulate and build upon the knowledge and achievements of previous generations, which he termed "time-binding." He later developed this insight into a theory that human progress occurs through coordinating ideas with realities in a non-linear, exponential fashion over generations.
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer born in 1890 who was influential during the Harlem Renaissance. He published his first book of poems in 1912 and continued writing throughout his life, focusing on themes of the working class and black experience. McKay lived for periods in the US and Europe, becoming a US citizen in 1940, but never returned to his native Jamaica, dying of heart disease in 1948.
