Technocracy

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The Technocracy movement is a social movement that started in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s and advocates a form of society where the welfare of human beings is optimized by means of scientific analysis and widespread use of technology. Today the movement exists as Technocracy Incorporated,[1] whose members partake in discussion groups and publish quarterly magazines.

Contents

History

The technocracy movement has some of its intellectual origins back in the progressive engineers of the late 19th century including the works of Thorsten Veblen, such as "Engineers and the price system" as well as, to a lesser extent, Scientific management.[2] Josiah Willard Gibbs, a mathematician, engineer and chemist, has been described as the "intellectual forefather of technocracy" for his work on energy determinants. Early proto-technocratic organisations formed after the First World War; these included Henry Gantt’s "The New Machine" and Veblen’s "Soviet of Technicians". These organisations folded after a short time. However, the "Soviet of Technicians" resulted in a series of lectures, which Howard Scott attended;[3] he started the Technical Alliance in the winter of 1918-1919. William H. Smyth first used the word "technocracy" to describe a government made up of scientists and engineers in 1919,[4] and in the 1920s, it was used to to describe to works of Thorsten Veblen[5].

The Technical Alliance, composed of mostly scientists and engineers, started an Energy Survey of North America of the North American continent near the beginning of the 20th century. Many of their conclusions gave a scientific background upon which they based their ideas for a new social structure. Thorstein Veblen, who wrote Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)[6], was a member of the Technical Alliance.

After the dissolution of the Technical Alliance, Howard Scott became the founder and leader of a new organization called Technocracy Incorporated, which sought to implement the findings of the Alliance and create a new kind of society. The group was incorporated in the state of New York in 1933 as a non-profit organization, non-political, non-sectarian organization. Led by Scott, then director-in-chief or "Chief Engineer", the organization promoted its goals of educating people about the Alliance's ideas via a North American lecture tour in 1934, gaining support throughout the The Great Depression years. The precedent document of the Technocracy movement is the Technocracy Study Course.

The organization has published several magazines throughout its history, including the The Technocrat, The Northwest Technocrat and Technocracy Digest, it currently publishes the North American Technocrat[7] and the movement still continues after more than 70 years of history (for a more complete list of past publications see here [1]). One of the most notable members of the movement was M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist who proposed the theory which has become known as the Hubbert Peak or Peak oil.

The standard unit for the organization is the chartered Section, consisting of at least fifty members. At Technocracy's height in popularity, many cities contained more than one Section, sometimes as many as a dozen or more. These sections undertook the majority of Technocracy's work, including the research that continued after the Technical Alliance.

The organization receives its funds entirely from dues and donations from its members. Because of the goal of abolishing political controls, membership is open to any citizen of North America except politicians.

Technocracy's Continental Headquarters ("CHQ") was originally situated in New York. It has moved several times through its history, and is currently located in Ferndale, Washington, USA.

European movement

In 2005, a group of Europeans, inspired by Technocracy, decided to use some of the ideas of North American Technocracy in Europe and created the Network of European Technocrats, or NET, an autonomous research and education organisation with the primary goal of undertaking an Energy Survey (similar to the Energy Survey of North America) in order to determine the possibility of establishing a Technate upon the European continent.[8][9] Although NET was inspired by Technocracy Incorporated, they are not officially affiliated and there are differences between the two groups (such as NET's avocation of Holons).[10]

The organisation's goals are aimed at testing the concepts of the Technocracy movement through experimentation and networking. One of the other main differences between European and North American Technocracy is NET's focus and investigation into Decentralization and Ecology movement methods of resource and information distribution.[11][12]

NET was officially registered as an independent Non-profit organization in Sweden in April 2006. Its provisional headquarters (EHQ) are in Umeå, Sweden.

Ideas and goals

The Technocracy movement aims to establish a zero growth socio-economic system based upon conservation ethic|conservation and abundance (economics)|abundance as opposed to scarcity-based economic systems like capitalism and the system used by Communist states. A core conclusion reached by the Technocracy movement is that a Technocratic views of the Price system|price system, or any system based on scarcity, is an illogical means of distribution in our technologically advanced world. Technocracy sees established economic, political, and administrative forms as relics of a traditional past.

Technocrats argue that developments in mechanization have caused a massive shift of employment towards the service sector. Further increases in efficiency and productivity mean that most of the tasks performed by human employees could be reduced or eliminated through better management, automation, and centralization. These trends should signal an increase in both production possibilities and leisure time since more can be produced with less human labor. Within a market system, however, increased productivity often leads to downsizing because companies need fewer workers and lower wages because of competition. Consequently, the standard of living falls for many. Thus, Technocrats argue that we are faced with a fundamental paradox: As inexpensive machines become available to replace human labor, they do not make our lives easier; on the contrary, they make them harder. The more people are capable of producing due to technology, the greater the Economic inequality|disparities in wealth will become and the potential benefit of technology will be shared less. The basic cause of this problem, in the view of the Technocracy movement, is the fact that we rely on a money-based system to make economic decisions.

As opposed to economists, who define economic efficiency|efficiency in terms of maximal allocation of limited Natural resource|resources, in order to provide the most utility to their owners, Technocrats define efficiency in terms of empirical evidence. Efficiency, for a Technocrat, is measured scientifically: a ratio of energy applied for useful work to energy applied in the complete system. Technocrats argue there exists a massive rift between the real world of science and the world of economics. They claim the inputs needed to make most products are in abundance, especially those critical to society's needs like food, shelter, transportation, information, etc. Technocrats argue that most social ills, such as poverty and hunger are due to faulty economics and improper use of technology. They frequently point out that the current price system is wasteful as it utilizes as many resources as possible but can only create scarce products (excludable and rival private goods). Technocrats argue that full use of our technology and resources should be able to produce an abundance.

Technocrats claim that the price system entails a severe lack of purchasing power, and has been propped up by wasteful tactics, major patches to the economic system, and increasingly huge amounts of debt, which began to increase exponentially after 1930. This debt includes the U.S. U.S. public debt|national debt, mortgages (see global debt), long term debt, credit debt, and the growing stock market. Technocrats see growing debt as a threat to the stability of capitalism. Technocrats claim that the price system will eventually fail, in which case the movement hopes to have educated enough of the populace in order to peaceably make changes to the economic structure and create a Technate.

An alternative to money: Energy accounting

Energy Accounting is a hypothetical system of distribution, which would record the Energy used to produce and distribute goods and services consumed by citizens in a Technate. The units of this accounting system would be known as Energy Certificates, or simply Energy Units, these would replace money in a Technate, but unlike traditional money or currencies, energy certificates could not be saved or earned, only distributed evenly among a populace. The amount of energy given to each citizen would be calculated by determining the total productive capacity of the technate and dividing it equally. The Energy units or certificates, themselves would probably not have to be physically used by the populace, as the system would be computerised. In energy accounting the Technate would use information of natural resources, industrial capacity and citizen’s purchasing habits to determine how much of any good or service was being consumed by the populace, so that it could match Manufacturing|production with Consumption (economics)|consumption.

Some reasons given for the use of Energy Accounting are, to ensure the highest possible standard of living, as well as Social equality|equality, among the Technate’s citizenry, as well as prohibit expending resources that go beyond the productive or ecological capacity of the technate.[13] Technocrats point out that energy accounting is not rationing; it is a way to distribute an Abundance (economics)|abundance and track demand. Everyone would receive an equal, abundant (i.e. far more than they need), amount of energy. Technocrats predict that at today's rates of energy conversion, no person will rationally be able to spend all their energy units.

The North American Technate

The North American Technate is a design and plan to transform North America into a Technocratic society after the collapse of the Technocratic views of the Price system|Price system. The plan includes using Canada's rich deposits of minerals and Hydroelectricity|hydro-electric power as a complement to the United States's Industry|industrial and Agriculture|agricultural capacity (Many of the details of this plan are presented in the Technocracy Study Course).

The North America Technate would be composed of all of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, parts of South America and Greenland, encompassing some 30 modern nations (as well as numerous United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories|Non-Self-Governing Territories). If the Technate were set up today, it would contain nearly 600 million citizens and its total land area would be over 26 million square km (making it the List of countries and outlying territories by total area|largest nation on Earth). Its territorial claims would stretch from the North Pole in the north, to the Equator in the south and from the Caribbean in the west, to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, to the east.

Urbanates: A technocratic replacement for cities

Once a technate has been established, the Technocracy movement believes that it should proceed to construct an entirely new form of living environment called Urbanates. An Urbanate is essentially an assembly of buildings where people live and work. These places would have all the facilities needed for a community, including schools, hospitals, shopping malls, waste management and recycling facilities, sports centres, and public areas.

Technocrats wish Urbanates to be something akin to resorts, designed to give each citizen the highest standard of living possible. Getting around in an Urbanate would be inherently easy and efficient. Every kind of major facility would be placed within walking distance of a housing complex, eliminating the need for cars.

Urbanates would be connected via a continent-wide transportation network envisioned by Technocracy, which would involve a High-speed rail network linking every Urbanate, the Continental Hydrology (a massive Canal network), and air transport. These systems would also be connected to the Technate’s Industry|industrial sites for easy transport of goods to consumers, and to all recreational and vacation areas of the continent.

The reason given by the Technocracy movement for all this ambitious restructuring of urban life is that modern cities are often extremely Urban sprawl|poorly planned and built in a haphazard way leading to major inefficiencies, waste, and large numbers of Social issues|social and environmental problems. Technocrats believe that rather than trying to solve all these problems within the framework of existing cities, it is best to start with a clean slate and construct Urbanates. Technocrats propose that all of the old cities in the technate should be gradually abandoned and "mined" for their resources. This would involve recycling resources (e.g. steel, concrete, glass, plastics, etc.), which would then go into building the Urbanates, thus reducing the need to extract and process new materials and lessen environmental damage. Though some buildings (or perhaps whole areas of the old cities) that are of historical or cultural importance, would likely be kept and preserved as a type of outdoor museums.

Criticisms of the movement

Technocrats themselves would argue that those in power, politicians and boards of corporations, are a form of organized opposition as a Technate design eliminates a Political system and the corporate system also. The movement claims that this opposition has helped spread a negative connotation to the term technocracy and the ideas associated with it.

Critics make the following claims regarding technocracy:

  • There is no possible way to eliminate the scarcity of products in the modern world, especially given the large variety that exists today.
  • The theory that labor time could be drastically reduced at current productivity levels seems extremely suspect given the low unemployment rate in modern Western societies.
    • Technocrats, on the other hand, see these societies as inefficient and wasteful, and argue that the unemployment rate is not an accurate measure of the total number of people working and the amount of work being performed. In the United States, of those of working age, only 65% Participation rate|participate in the economy,[14] while European countries have an even smaller proportion.[15] Moreover, a significant number of employees work in industries such as finance, advertising, and retail. Many of these jobs would disappear after the transition from a monetary economy to a technocracy, meaning that the "adjusted" unemployment rate (a measure excluding such pecuniary jobs) is much higher than indicated.
  • It may be argued that although perfect scientific management would result in good governance, the limitations of human managers will produce imperfect management, which might be less efficient than other systems like democracy. Poor governance might result from abuse of power, managers' limited knowledge of the system, and internal conflict among decision-makers, for example. Of course, these arguments have never been tested with respect to technocracy per se.

Image:Technocracybooklet.jpg|right|thumb|The Sellout of the Ages by Howard Scott, a Technocracy Inc. publication. Image:North American Technate.PNG|thumb|Map of the North American Technate, taken from the TTCD, Page 22

Technocracy in fiction

Science fiction writer Howard Waldrop's short story "You Could Go Home Again" postulates an Alternate history (fiction)|alternate history where a technocratic government came to power in the United States, resulting in many historical differences, including World War II having never happened. However, Waldrop never intended for the story to be an accurate depiction of Technocracy, instead only borrowing elements from it as a backdrop for his story.

The United Federation of Planets in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek franchise bears some similarity to a Technocratic society. Although its economics are rarely discussed in detail, the Federation is almost certainly some form of Post scarcity, moneyless society.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy describes the development of a highly automated society whose economy was based on caloric input/output and had few materials valued based on their scarcity, thus bearing some similarities to Technocratic ideas.

Charles Stross has described science fiction itself as "the fictional agitprop arm of the Technocrat movement" which "carried on marching in lockstep into the radiant future even after Technocracy withered in the 1930s."[16]

In Robert A. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers, a technocratic coup attempt is described as having been undertaken but failed in the last days of a destructive global war. Referring to the attempt, the character Major Reid remarks, "the so-called 'Revolt of the Scientists': let the intelligent men run things and you'll have utopia. It fell flat on its foolish face of course. Because the pursuit of science, despite its social benefits, is not itself a social virtue; its practitioners can be men so self-centered as to be lacking in social responsibility."[17]
     Notably, democracies of general franchise also failed in the novel's future history, giving rise to a government in which only veterans of National service|Federal Service may vote or hold office.

Satirical treatments

The Technocracy movement was the subject of several satires in the 1930s. A special notable "Technocracy Number" of The Judge|Judge humor magazine, illustrated by Dr. Seuss, made fun of Technocracy, Inc. and featured satirical rhymes at the expense of Frederick Soddy. In a 1933 Flip the Frog cartoon, Techno-Cracked, Flip builds a robot to work for him and gets a lesson in unintended consequences.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Authenticity Official Technocracy Incorporated Website stating their authenticity
  2. ↑ cite book | last = Akin | first = William E. | authorlink = William E. Akin, | coauthors = | title = Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 | publisher = University of California Press | date = 1977 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 0-520-03110-5
  3. ↑ cite book | last = Akin | first = William E. | authorlink = William E. Akin, | coauthors = | title = Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 | publisher = University of California Press | date = 1977 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 0-520-03110-5
  4. ↑ cite book | last = Raymond| first = Allen | authorlink = Raymond Allen, | coauthors = | title = What is Technocracy? | McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., LTD. | date = 1933 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn =
  5. ↑ cite book | last = Akin | first = William E. | authorlink = William E. Akin, | coauthors = | title = Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 | publisher = University of California Press | date = 1977 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | isbn = 0-520-03110-5
  6. ↑ gutenberg|no=833|name=The Theory of the Leisure Class
  7. ↑ cite web| title = What are we? | url = http://www.technocracy.org/What%20is%20Technocracy.htm | publisher = Technocracy Inc. | accessdate = 2007-06-25
  8. ↑ NET Organisation Introductory information from NET website
  9. ↑ NET Vision Mission statement, from NET website
  10. ↑ European Technocracy Model NET's statement of differences between North American and European Technocracy
  11. ↑ Sequence of Research Details of NET's Research
  12. ↑ cite web | last = Emanuelsson | first = Erik | authorlink = Erik Emanuelsson | coauthors = | title = Det teknokratiska idealsamhället | work = | publisher = Noden | date = 3 November 2006 | url = http://news.humlab.umu.se/node/200 | format = | doi = | accessdaymonth = 19 June | accessyear=2007
  13. ↑ Energy Accounting An article on Energy Accounting as proposed by Technocracy Inc.
  14. ↑ cite web | author = U.S. Department of Labor | url = http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS11300000 | title = Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey | accessdate = 2006-04-09
  15. ↑ cite web | author = European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions | url = http://www.eurofound.eu.int/areas/industrialrelations/dictionary/definitions/LABOURFORCEPARTICIPATION.htm | title = Labour force participation | accessdate = 2006-12-28
  16. ↑ http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2006/10/lets_put_the_future_behind_us.html
  17. ↑ Heinlein, Robert A. Starship Troopers. New York: Ace, 1987. p.143 (originally published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1959.)

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