The Monastery and The Clock

- Imagine and briefly describe a world without clocks. What would your life look like without measured time?

Its difficult to imagine a world without clocks, I feel like we as a culture are so disconnected from a way of life that would permit that. I imagine that many technologies wouldn't exit, so many things rely on clocks. Maybe we would just have completely different but equally as sophisticated technology. Maybe we would be really good at knowing the "time" of day just by habit, however it would be more general. 

- What did Mumford mean by the statement: “Time-keeping passed into time-serving and time-accounting and time-rationing. As this took place, Eternity ceased gradually to serve as the measure and focus of human actions.” Ponder the technologies available to us today in terms of instantaneous communication. How will/have our perceptions of time changed?

Our lives have changed drastically. The movement towards instantaneous communication and payment and exchange has been an important factor in globalization and society as we know it. We can explore the world, in a sense, without having to actually go anywhere. Its amazing and terrifying, this in-between place that is the virtual world is almost omnipotent in its ability to make our lives easier, yet it is nearly invisible, like a thought. 

- How did the clock standardize production and disassociate time from nature? What is the difference between mechanical time and organic time?


The invention of the clock allowed for regular schedules, working for money per hour, machines that saved time and therefore money, and many other technologies that kicked off an age of standardized production and efficiency. This new mechanical time allowed schedules to be formed, exact times for all of the things you needed to do throughout the day, slots to be filled with errands. Whereas before clocks, when time was more organic, people may have woken up to their rooster crowing or eat when their bellies told them they were hungry.


- In this article what is the relationship between time and space? How did people’s relationship to history change with the clock?

Modern perceptions of time divide space into categories and intervals. Our relationship to history changed as a result of the mental and societal shift, creating journals and periodicals along with many other time/clock-based products.