CAPACITY ACCOUNTING
Measurement establishes what the record may contain.
It does not complete what remains unresolved.
A machine performs work.
A demand is removed.
A remainder appears.
These are related events.
They are not the same event.
THREE LEDGERS
WORK — CLOSED
What did the mechanism perform?
Distance. Load. Energy. Duration. Transfer.
Once the work is performed and measured, the ledger closes.
CAPACITY — OPEN
What demand did the organism no longer have to meet?
The released demand creates slack.
Slack is capacity.
It is not production.
PRODUCTION — UNRECONCILED
What did the remainder become?
Work. Thought. Relation. Recovery. Creation. Some other constituted output.
Or a blank.
A blank is permitted.
It is not converted into a credit merely because capacity existed.
THE INVARIANT
Work closes.
Capacity opens.
Production must be shown.
Efficiency creates slack.
Slack is not production.
THE ETERNAL ESCALATOR RECKONING
An escalator carries a person upward.
Its records are excellent:
Voltage can be measured.
Energy consumption can be measured.
Load can be measured.
Distance and elevation can be measured.
Time can be measured.
The machine can account for what it did.
The passenger was relieved of work that otherwise would have been required.
That fact may also be recorded.
Then the measurement stopped. But what became of the capacity created?
The released capacity may become conversation, thought, work, recovery, creation, or something not anticipated by the system.
The passengers may communicate.
They may create together.
The machine has produced its books.
The other book remains open.
THE ULTIMATE MACHINE QUERY
You say it saved time.
What did the time produce?