Technocracy Incorporated

Technocracy Incorporated
The monad, representing balance, is the official symbol of Technocracy, Inc.
Abbreviation	TechInc
Formation	1933
Type	NPO
Headquarters	Ferndale, Washington
Official languages	English
Website	http://www.technocracy.org/

Technocracy Incorporated is a non-profit technocracy organization, formed in 1933, which proposed a new governmental system. Technocracy advocates contend that capitalist forms of government and economy are structurally incapable of effective action, and promoted a more rational and productive type of society headed by technical experts.^[1] However, the technocrats' popularity was short-lived.^[2][3]

Overview

An elderly Howard Scott with John Gregory at Technocracy Inc. Continental Headquarters (CHQ), then in Rushland, PA.

Technocracy is a hypothetical form of government in which scientists and technical experts administer; "technocracy is described as that society in which those who govern justify themselves by appeal to technical experts who justify themselves by appeal to scientific forms of knowledge". It is a form of planned economy. The term came to mean government by technical decision making in 1932.^[4]

Technocracy Incorporated's headquarters were originally situated in New York. It has moved several times through its history, and is currently located in Ferndale, Washington. Howard Scott became the first Director of Technocracy Incorporated in 1933, a position he held until his death.^{[citation needed]}

Technocracy Inc. officials wore a uniform, consisting of a "well-tailored double-breasted suit, gray shirt, and blue necktie, with a monad insignia on the lapel", and its members saluted Scott in public.^[1][5] Beverly Burris has suggested that the elitist and even fascist overtones of the technocracy movement undermined its popular appeal as a political movement, and by the mid-1930s the technocracy movement was in decline.^[1]

Technates

Map of the North American Technate.

The North American Technate is a design and plan to transform North America into a technocratic society. The proposal includes using Canada's rich deposits of minerals and hydro-electric power as a complement to the United States's industrial and agricultural capacity.^{[citation needed]}

The proposed 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 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.^{[citation needed]} Its territorial claims would stretch from the North Pole in the north, to the Equator in the south and from the Caribbean in the east, to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, to the west.^{[citation needed]}

Urbanates

Once a technate has been established, Technocracy Incorporated advocates a 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.^{[citation needed]}

Technocrats plan for 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.^[6]

Energy accounting

Trends of the price system with technologic escalation, as projected by Technocracy Inc.

At the core of Scott's vision was "an energy theory of value". Since the basic measure common to the production of all goods and services was energy, he reasoned "that the sole scientific foundation for the monetary system was also energy".^[2]

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.^[7] The units of this accounting system would be known as Energy Certificates, or Energy Units. These would replace money in a Technate.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Willard Gibbs
• Frederick Soddy
• Thermoeconomics
• Energy quality
• Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Beverly H. Burris (1993). Technocracy at work State University of New York Press, p. 28.
2. ^ ^{a b} David E. Nye (1992). Electrifying America: social meanings of a new technology, 1880-1940 pp. 343-344.
3. ^ Howard P. Segal (2005). Technological Utopianism in American Culture Syracuse University Press, p. 123.
4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary 3rd edition (Word from 2nd edition 1989)
5. ^ William E. Aikin (1977). Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocracy Movement 1900-1941, University of California Press, p. 101.
6. ^ Ivie, Wilton A Place to Live: 1955 Technocracy Digest
7. ^ http://ecen.com/eee9/ecoterme.htm Economy and Thermodynamics