This synapse (the very first!) is about this reiterated idea that the 20th-century schools of thought regarding productivity and what not are harmful in specific ways. First encountered in The Nature of Order, synapsed in Thinking in Systems.
". . . the mind-set of the industrial world assumes that there is a key to prediction and control."
~ Thinking in Systems (http://newforum.droqen.com/index.php?topic=439.msg2105#msg2105)
Christopher Alexander talks specifically about the 20th-century mechanistic viewpoint multiple times throughout The Nature of Order, but I don't particularly have any quotes to pull at the moment.
~ The Nature of Order (http://newforum.droqen.com/index.php?topic=364)