The technocratic movement is a social movement beginning in the 1920s and 1930s in the United States and advocating the plan of the Technical Alliance, a society where the welfare of human beings is optimized by means of scientific analysis and widespread use of technology.The movement is known today and still exists as Technocracy Incorporated, the members of which partake in discussion groups and publish quarterly magazines, and operate sites promoting the Technate Design idea, which is the plan from the Technocracy Study Course, the last two chapters of which outline the Design of the North American Technate.
History
Howard Scott started the Technocratic movement as the Technical Alliance in the winter of 1918-1919. The Technical Alliance, composed of mostly scientists and engineers, started an energy survey 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 the famous Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), was a member of the Technical Alliance.
In 1933, the group became incorporated in the state of New York as a non-profit, non-political, non-sectarian organization known as Technocracy Incorporated. Led by Scott, then director-in-chief (his organizational title was "Chief Engineer"), the organization promoted its goals with a North American lecture tour in 1934, gaining support throughout the depression years.
The organization's magazines, The Northwest Technocrat and Technocracy Digest, are still published today and the movement still continues after more than 70 years of history. 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. The Technocracy Study Course was studied, and explained at these section meetings.
Membership is open to any citizen of North America.
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. Another legal corporation called Technocracy Incorporated,CHQ 44.94 -93.29 exists also, aside from the fore-mentioned one, and it formats and presents material from the Technical Alliance.
European movement
See main article: Network_of_European_Technocrats
Around the year 2005, due to an increase in international activity on the Technocracy portal page[1] a group of Europeans inspired by Technocracy, decided to spread a variation of the ideas to the other side of the Atlantic ocean and thus created NET, as an autonomous research and education organisation with the goal of undertaking an Energy Survey (similar to the Energy Survey of North America) in order to determine if it is possible to establish a Technate upon the European continent. The organisation is also focused on testing the assumptions of the technocratic movement through experimenting and networking.
The main difference from Technocracy Incorporated, is that NET is investigating in more social design ideas, than the North American organisation. The use of holons, which NET is debating establishing, is clearly a proof of that inclination.
In May 2006, NET was registered as an independent association in Sweden. The provisional headquarters (EHQ) lies in Umeå, Sweden, The current NET director, is Mansel Ismay. NET has also established its own portal page[2].
Ideas and goals
The Technocratic movement aims to establish a zero growth socio-economic system based upon conservation and abundance as opposed to scarcity-based economic systems like capitalism and the system used by Communist states. A core conclusion reached by the Technocratic movement is that a 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 explain that developments in mechanization have caused a massive shift of employment towards the service sector.Vorlage:Fact 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 state 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 we are capable of producing due to technology, the greater the 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 Technocratic movement, is the fact that we rely on a money-based system to make economic decisions.
As opposed to economists, who define efficiency in terms of maximal allocation of limited 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 state the inputs needed to make most products are in abundance, especially those critical to society's needs like food, shelter, transportation, information, etc. Technocrats state 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 state 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.Vorlage:Fact This debt includes the U.S. 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 state that the price system will eventually fail, in which case the movement hopes to have educated enough of the populace in order to make changes to the economic structure and create a Technate.
An alternative to money: Energy accounting
An energy credit is a hypothetical unit, similar but different than currency used in a technate. Unlike traditional money, energy credits cannot be saved or earned, only distributed evenly among a populace. The amount of credit given to each citizen would be calculated by determining the total productive capacity of the technate and dividing it equally. The reason for the use of energy credits is to ensure equality among the Technate’s citizenry as well as prohibit spending that is beyond the productive capacity of the technocracy. This system is usually referred to as energy accounting.
Technocrats point out that energy accounting is not rationing; it is a way to distribute an abundance and track demand. Everyone would receive an equal, abundant (i.e. more than they need), amount of energy credits. Technocrats predict that at today's rates of energy conversion, no person will rationally be able to spend all their energy credits.Vorlage:Fact
The North American Technate
The North American Technate is a design and plan to transform North America into a technocratic society. The plan includes using Canada's rich deposits of minerals and hydro-electric power as a complement to the United States's industrial and agricultural capacity. This plan also includes the land area of Mexico, Central America, and the very top of S. America. This land area was chosen because of its resource base, and geographic manageability.
Urban planning:
Once a technate has been established, the Technocratic movement states that it will proceed to construct new forms of living environments. These places would have all the facilities needed for a community, including schools, hospitals, shopping malls, waste management and recycling facilities, and public areas.
Urban areas would be connected via a continent-wide transportation network envisioned by Technocracy, which would involve a high speed rail network linking every Urban area, the Continental Hydrology, and air transport. These systems would also be connected to the Technate’s industrial sites for easy transport of goods to consumers, and to all recreational and vacation areas of the continent.
The reason given by the Technocratic movement for all this restructuring, is that modern cities are often poorly planned and built in a haphazard way leading to major inefficiencies, waste, and large numbers of social and environmental problems. Technocrats state that rather than trying to solve all these problems within the framework of existing cities, it is best to construct new areas as needed. This would involve recycling resources (e.g. steel, concrete, glass, plastics etc.), which would then go into building new communities , thus reducing the need to extract and process new materials and lessen environmental damage, and improve the efficiency of population centers.
Criticisms of the movement
Critics make the following claims regarding technocracy:
- There is no possible way to eliminate the scarcity of products in the modern world.
- The theory that labor time could be drastically reduced at current productivity levels seems seems suspect.
- 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 amount of people working and the amount of work being performed. In the United States, of those of working age, only 65% participate in the economy,[1] while European countries have an even smaller proportion[2]. 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.
- Technology cannot solve all of our problems.
- A Technocratic rebuttal might be the fact that this is irrelevant, as Technocracy can solve more problems more effectively than current governments.
- Naturally scarce things (e.g. gold, or rare gems are impossible to distribute abundantly.
- A Technocratic rebuttal to this criticism might be that under Technocracy, these things would have no greater value than their actual worth in producing other goods or their utility in generating energy. Gold jewelry or rare gems would have no special value other than curio value, due to scarcity. Technocrats argue that in the consumerist societies of today, the majority of what people consume is made by machine, usually in some form of mass production or scientific management; thus, the majority of consumables is subject to complete automation. Naturally scarce things are so scarce that they will not have an effect on a technocratic society.
- A second rebuttal is that many items are only "scarce" due to their controlled limited release, not due to any actual rarity. Many other "valuable" commodities are propped up by similar purposely limited-supply and marketing schemes.
- A Technocratic rebuttal to this criticism might be that under Technocracy, these things would have no greater value than their actual worth in producing other goods or their utility in generating energy. Gold jewelry or rare gems would have no special value other than curio value, due to scarcity. Technocrats argue that in the consumerist societies of today, the majority of what people consume is made by machine, usually in some form of mass production or scientific management; thus, the majority of consumables is subject to complete automation. Naturally scarce things are so scarce that they will not have an effect on a technocratic society.
- Many people believe that human beings are materially selfish and would not be willing to work unless that work gave them some direct material benefit; thus the technate would fail to function due to a shortage of labor.
- Technocrats do not see an unwillingness to work as a problem. They posit that a technocratic society would seek to eventually eliminate the majority of human labor altogether through automation. As for the remaining jobs, technocrats hold that many citizens would continue to work given that they have the skills and/or if they enjoy it.
- As the efficiency of the system continues to increase and advance, the living standard of the Technate would improve, thus yielding a tangible material gain due to a collective work effort.
- Many critics believe that the entire Technocratic system relies on the notion that human want is finite.
- Technocrats, however, make no such claim. Instead, they make no statement regarding human "want", only that the human ability to actually consume is finite. This is exampled by such things as food, or transportation. While one can "own" any amount of cars in a scarcity system, they can only actually "consume" so much transportation; that is, they can only drive (or fly, etc.) for so many hours in a day. Since the very concept of ownership would be different in a Technate, citizens would not own methods of transportation, but only use them to whatever amount they like, limited only by how much they physically can.
Technocracy Incorporated Publications
- Technocracy Study Course [Technocracy, Inc.], (1934)
Here is a link for a free file copy of the Technocracy Study Course. http://www.google.com/base/a/1264040/D15768569411099866373 Google Base: Technocracy Study Course. original].
Here is a link to a wealth of archived material from many decades of Technocracy writers, http://technocracynow.blogspot.com/ Technocracy - The Design of the North American Technate].
Books on the Technocratic movement
To date, two serious studies of the early history of the Technocratic movement have been published:
- William E. Akin, Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 (University of California Press, 1977) ISBN 0-520-03110-5
- Henry Elsner, The Technocrats, Prophets of Automation (Syracuse University Press, 1967)
Elsner's account is from a sociological perspective and so might provide more social theory than history. Akin's book is much more detailed, though deals mostly with the intellectual history of the movement. Neither book is terribly critical of the movement, though they both agree that the Technocrats' influence on American history has been negligible. The authors argue that Technocracy gained a fair amount of national press attention in the midst of the Great Depression, but their time in the spotlight lasted scarcely a year, from 1932-33.
- Harold Loeb, Life in a Technocracy. What it Might Be Like (The Viking Press, 1933)
- Allen Raymond, What is Technocracy? (McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., LTD., 1933)
- Andrew Wallace, Technocracy: Building a new sustainable society for a post carbon world Lulu ID 750510, 2007)
- Skip Sievert Beyond the Cloak of Deception , Politics, Religion & Economics in the Price System. How perceptions are controlled and manipulated and why (GeoTech 2006 2nd.ed.)
Technocracy in fiction
The animated series Insektors features character Teknocratus as the "chief engineer" to the Yuk society. At one point he creates a computer named Kalkulator, capable of automating a city in a way similar to in a purposed Technate.
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 who's economy was based on caloric input/output and had few materials valued based on their scarcity.
Satirical Treatments
The Technocratic movement was the subject of several satires in the 1930s. A special notable "Technocracy Number" of 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.
References
- ↑ U.S. Department of Labor: Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. Abgerufen am 9. April 2006.
- ↑ European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions: Labour force participation. Abgerufen am 28. Dezember 2006.
See also
External links
- Technocracy, Inc. (official website with a wealth of archived material from decades of Technocracy related writers.)
- Technocracy Vancouver
- History and Purpose of Technocracy
- [3] (links to various sites, and articles.
- Historical Background and Development of Social Security from the U.S. Social Security Administration (see section Technocracy)
- Technocracy Study Course (a down-loadable copy of the Technocracy Study Course available here)
- Links to Technocracy Movement (This is an information presentation site with archived materials)
- An article on Energy Accounting
- Network of European Technocrats