[Comrade Ogilvy]

Oh and I looked up what Technocracy is:

Government of scientists and such. What else about Technocracy?

[Haraldur]

I guess that this subforum has been here since about May 03. Just noticed it huh? Same with me, but a few months ago.

Technocracy was originally designed as a system to efficiently distribute the abundance of goods and services in North America, and was first publicised in North America in the 1930s, which was also one of the times of its greatest support.

Technocracy's design for a technocratic state (a technate) has several aims: high standard of living, with equal purchasing power for everyone (which will, because of the abundance, be so high that noone would reach the limit of purchasing power unless they are stupid and buy 1000000 gnomes or some such), efficient resource use (no roads, so no cars, so 95% of energy use is gone, recycling as much as possible, including sewage (I believe Howard Scott once designed a process to make plastics from sewage) and insulation for houses), living in Urbanates (settlements of a few tens of thousands of people, where everything is in walking distance, hence very efficient) and to look after the planetary ecology.

Hence, technocracy, in terms of its aims, can summed up thusly: "The highest possible standard of living for the longest possible time." Myself, though, I like to emphasise the egalitarianism of the design also.

In a technate, those who make policy (or equivalent) are those who also must carry it out, unlike in the current system. These people are technical experts in their various fields. This is not a representative democracy, these people are appointed through being fit for the job only, and they only have power over things of a technical nature (although some departments, like health for example, might have to leave the technical zone sometimes, depending on their consciance at the time). Most decisions of a social nature (like, say, should people be able to vote at 16?) are decided through direct democracy. Other democratic decisions are the decisions of what products are to be produced, and that is through an analysis for the demand of each produced good, in real time, and so to match production and demandm (the technocratic symbol, the monad, represents producation and consumption being equal). An equivalent for new products would probably be, would you like to have this? And they do a statistical analysis of the vote to determine how much to produce initially.

Technocracy advocates replacing money, a form of distribution which has value which fluctuates, and price and value with a metrical system of measuring energy used in the production of goods (since all goods produced cost energy). The main reason for this is because of the aforementioned abundance: if supply is more than demand, prices crash. Ever tried to sell air? Or water (OK, so that is not a good example, as you get all these bottled waters /whatever, so, ever tried to sell sea water while being at the coast?)?

I am, of course, not an expert, so I will direct you to a site written by one:

www.technocracy.ca

There is a beginners page, which gives the very basics of the aims and small parts of the design, which will be very defficient in detail. For more detail on specific things, there is an articles section, and there is a forum where anyone can answer any questions you inevitably will have.

Happy reading!