Synchronization from the point of view of the history of science

Abstract

Time as defined in the context of individual lives cannot be measured or compared; it therefore needs to be particularized through processes of synchronization and desynchronization. Subjectivity is a notion that supports temporal objectivity only if the mode of production is not based on a concept of exchange but on simple appropriation. Time as identified with the life of the individual remains incommensurable. But the history of growth in the spatial dimensions of trade and the reduction in the amount of time needed to effect commercial exchanges is integral to and consequent on the development of science as a method of forecasting and planning. As trade grows, so does the role of science, to the point where it can be seen as pivotal to a society in which the practice of trade is becoming both universal and frequent. The growth of trade was the cause and the effect of both a need to consolidate and develop an increasingly complex system of forecasting, and the requirement for a science with the capacity to make the future less unpredictable.