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Background hereby providing more benefits for all members of society Philosophically, technocracy found its roots in the while consuming fewer resources. scientific autocracy of Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) The other integral part of Technocracy was to implement and in the positivism of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), the an economic system based on energy allocation rather than father of social sciences. Positivism elevated science and _ price. They proposed to replace traditional money with the scientific method above metaphysical revelation. Energy Credits. Their keen focus on the efficient use of Technocrats embraced positivism because they believed energy is likely the first hint of a sustained that social progress was possible only through science and _ ecological/environmental movement in the United States. technology. The modern emphasis on curtailing carbon fuel The social movement of Technocracy, with its energy- consumption that causes global warming and CO2 based accounting system, can be traced back to the 1930s emissions is essentially a product of early technocratic when an obscure group of engineers and scientists offered it hinking. as a solution to the Great Depression. As scientists, Hubbert and Scott tried to explain (or The principal scientist behind Technocracy was M. King __ justify) their arguments in terms of physics and the law o Hubbert, a young geoscientist who would later (in hermodynamics, which is the study of energy conversion 1948-1956) invent the now-famous Peak Oil theory, also —_ between heat and mechanical work. Entropy is a concep' known as the Hubbert Peak theory. Hubbert stated that the — within thermodynamics that represents the amount o discovery of new energy reserves and their production would —_ energy in a system that is no longer available for doing be outstripped by usage, thereby eventually causing mechanical work. Entropy thus increases as matter and economic and social havoc. Many energy in the system degrade modern followers of peak oil towards the ultimate state of ine theory believe that the 2007-2009 uniformity. In layman's terms, global recession was exacerbated The other integral part entropy means that once you use in part by record oil prices that it, you lose it for good. reflected the validity of the theory. of Technocracy was to Furthermore, the end state o hin ubbert received all of his implement an economic entropy is "inert uniformity" where igher education at the University nothing takes place. Thus, if man of Chicago, graduating with a PhD system based on energy uses up all the available energy in 1937, and later taught geophysics a Columbia University. He was highly acclaimed throughout his career, social entropy is to increase the receiving many honours such as efficiency of society by the careful the Rockefeller Public Service Award in 1977. allocation of available energy and the measurement of In 1933, Hubbert and Howard Scott formed an — subsequent output in order to find a state of "equilibrium", organisation called Technocracy, Inc. "Technocracy" is or balance. derived from the Greek words techne, meaning "skill", and To facilitate this equilibrium between man and nature, kratos, meaning "rule". Thus, it is government by skilled — Technocracy proposed that citizens would receive Energy engineers, scientists and technicians as opposed to elected Certificates in order to operate the economy: and/or destroys the ecology, there can be no restoration ever again. The technocrat's way of avoiding allocation rather than price. Officials. It was opposed to all other forms of government, "... [Energy Certificates] are issued individually to every including communism, socialism and fascism, all of which — adult of the entire population... function with a price-based economy. "The record of one's income and its rate of expenditure is As founders of the organisation and political movemen kept by the Distribution Sequence, so that it is a simple called Technocracy, Inc., Hubbert and Scott also co-authored matter at any time for the Distribution Sequence to the Technocracy Study Course, published in 1934. This book ascertain the state of a given customer's balance... serves as the "bible" of Technocracy and is the roo "When making purchases of either goods or services an document to which most all modern technocratic thinking individual surrenders the Energy Certificates properly can be traced. identified and signed... Technocracy postulated that only scientists and engineers "The significance of this, from the point of view of were capable of running a complex, technology-based knowledge of what is going on in the social system, and of society. Because technology, the founders reasoned, social control, can best be appreciated when one surveys changed the social nature of societies, previous methods of the whole system in perspective. First, one single government and economy were made obsolete. They — organization is manning and operating the whole social disdained politicians and bureaucrats, whom they viewed as = mechanism. The same organization not only produces but incompetent. By utilising the scientific method and distributes all goods and services..." scientific management techniques, technocrats hoped to Two key differences between price-based money and squeeze the massive inefficiencies out of running a society, Energy Certificates are that: system based on energy allocation rather than price. at 26 * NEXUS The other integral part of Technocracy was to implement an economic AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2011 www.nexusmagazine.com