Leonard Da Vinci and the modern working man

Certainly not helicopters or tanks, both of which Leonardo had conceptualized in his time in the late 15th century. Although he had also invented in theory the calculator, he will probably be fascinated by a computer so powerful that it can process millions of calculations in the split of a second.

The existence of an underwater vessel that travels for years without refueling and carries weapons that can hit almost anywhere in the world, each capable of vaporizing a city instantly, would appeal to Leonardo the engineer and weapon-maker, but worry Leonardo the humanist.

He may even be slightly disappointed to find out that solar power is still far from being a main source of energy since he had invented centralized solar power 500 years ago.

Scientific progress in the last few centuries has been unprecedented in human history, yet given the explosion of innovations Leonardo had experienced in his lifetime alone, one has to doubt if any technological breakthrough can surprise the archetypal Renaissance man.

Now picture him walking into an office building. He sees hundreds of employees: engineers, managers, consultants, operators, human resource staff, electricians, technicians, plumbers, cooks, cleaners and some whose job titles have yet to be invented, all working in unison.

He would have been astonished by the sheer size of the manpower, amazed by the efficiency of these workers and by the science of management and business administration that are invented to enable such efficiency.

But the true shock will only register when he learns that it is not a government or a church office he is visiting. The hundreds of workers team up not to manage grandiose projects such as country-running, war waging or cathedral building. Such cooperation may produce only one single product.

He may find it wonderful, even spiritual, that these people dedicate a significant part of their lives to something much bigger than themselves.

An individual contributes only a little to the corporation's goal: The incessant search for perfection in research and development, manufacturing process, marketing and logistics, etc., to make better products more cheaply while selling them at higher prices.

Yet, minus the collective efforts of these people and the corporation collapses.

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