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The problem considered is how the contemporary Corp affects the intellectual activities of those who compose it. It is noted that numerous levels of authority carry with them their own decision process, & the closer the stages of decision get to action, the narrower the range of autonomy for the next stage in sequence. Automated processes substitute inanimate constraints on discretion for those formerly supplied by the people. Individuals become part of a programmed sequence that exercises the same limitation on autonomy as the premises imposed by a manager-superior. The more extended & complex the org's operations, the more layers of authority are necessary to control the activity. The org'al imperative of coordinating one unit's specialized operations with the specialized operations of all other units reduces the permissible area of discretion. The larger firms tend to narrow the field of exercise of the mind through specialization & a need for centralization that no amount of decentralization can ever fully overcome. But the large firms also invigorate the play of the mind by creating opportunities for action that otherwise would not exist at all & by pulling together talented individuals who, at their best, can create a climate that makes the probing of even narrower areas of responsibility a challenging & perhaps even a pioneering endeavor. Creative intellectual activity is then explored from the point of view of possible future centralization of power in all organized activity-gov, U's, businesses. The effects of this process may be partially offset by developing in private hands the capacity to undertake actions as yet associated with gov, ie, the private corporate centers of power could be invigorated. The specialized role of the firm itself could invigorate the intellectual climate within which the specialized roles of its employees are performed. The possibility that private Co's would, without sanction from the electorate, come to dominate society under such conditions can be faced as a calculated risk. M. Maxfield.