Oxymandias wrote:@Kolzene
Ah, I meant "You've said all the things you wanted to say?". I am such a dunderhead.
Not at all, we all make mistakes, even online.
As for your question, the answer is no. What I meant was that many times I find in long conversations what I want to say has already been said by others. That's all. There's plenty I'd like to say, I only wish I had the time.
Oxymandias wrote:You have to at least answer 8th one. That one is easy and mandatory.
42. Happy?
Actually I've already written answers to several of them. I'm thinking on the others and also have to find an appropriate place for them on the forum here.
Oxymandias wrote:BTW I have an idea that I think you should take into consideration, maybe you should write a blog! Not a blog that explains what Technocracy is, but a blog that describes what a Technocracy would be like going into the details and filling in the blanks left out by Technocracy Inc. Here you can let the science fiction writer in you go wild with creativity while creating realistic and applicable ideas and blueprints for a modern Technocracy. Based on your views and ideas, I think that you are a "hard" science fiction writer in which case you would have no problem writing realistic descriptions of a Technocracy. This blog will also not be based around stories but articles that describe what Technocracy is through a milleu-esque writing style. The most well-known example of what I mean is the descriptions of a communist society from the works of Karl Marx except much less aggressive and alot more friendly. Although communism absolutely isn't Technocracy at all in anyway possible what I want you to copy is the writing style, a style of writing that not many people outside of hardcore communists associate with Marx.
Actually I am already "letting the science fiction writer in me go wild" by working on a similar idea; not a blog, but a novel (and hopefully a series of novels if the first one does well enough). It takes place in an alternate history were Technocracy was adopted during the 1950s (the actual break-point from our history is the beginning of WWII).
In the meantime, have you read my article
The Benefits of Urbanates? It does some of this speculation.
Oxymandias wrote:Now you may say that you can't do this because Technocracy Inc left out those blanks in order for Technocracy to be timeless and that filling in those blanks would remove that element from Technocracy. I think you will say this because you are devoted to Technocracy however you are not devoted enough that I cannot potentially convince otherwise.
I think that you misunderstand a little here. The details I wanted to leave out before were for people who wanted a detailed plan on how to enact Technocracy, and I would have to tell them that such details were impossible because they would be dependent on too many factors that change over time, so without knowing those, you can't make too detailed of a plan. I have no problem with myself or anyone else speculating on what might be possible in a Technate now or in the future, for as long as people understand that it is just speculation, not a "plan forward". Now given that, I have filled in many of the blanks and given
a path forwards on my website. It may not be quite as detailed as some people might like, but I have yet to see someone point to a more detailed plan that has been used (preferably successfully) for something similar in the past. It is certainly an "actionable" plan.
Oxymandias wrote:The main reason for doing this blog is not to explain what Technocracy is or educate people on Technocracy, but to generate interest in Technocracy. In other words, the point of this blog is to entertain by providing intellectual stimulation through realistic and achievable blueprints for society. Afterward you can provide links for people who want to explore the general idea further or let the people who enjoyed the stimulation to go tell their friends about it. By doing so you greatly expand the audience for Technocracy.
I know. For a long time I was an advocate in the movement for the application of the arts (fiction, pictures, music, even movies if we could) as a means of generating interest. I'd point to things like the Venus Project which were excellent at generating interest (but that one was poor on the details of how it would actually work). I used to say that if Technocracy was the substance, TVP was the style, and what we needed was both. Unfortunately my words largely fell on deaf ears.
Oxymandias wrote:And this is also beneficial for people who lost interest in Technocracy. A big problem I find with Technocracy is that, after you understand it, there's not that much left to do other than educate others on it which seems like a boring experience. Heck, for me personally I shifted from an obsession with Technocracy to an obsession with reaching Technocracy. This is intellectually stimulating for me because I live in the Middle East which poses lots of problems for the development of Technocracy there. However that's what makes it so fun, because I get to think deeply about how to reach it and consider numerous different ideas. People who live in North America and arguably Euroep don't have these circumstances and therefore are just stuck with the boring and hard mission. The reason why political ideologies get lots of traction is because they are open to expansions of their ideas and open to derivatives of their ideology. However this cannot be done with Technocracy which is completely objective; but Technocracy Inc did leave out lots and lots of ideas on how every single piece could work out and this is where Technocracy can get that same traction.
Actually Technocracy Inc. was excellent at getting people involved back in the 1930s. However what they were not good at was adapting, and their model only worked well for an organization of a certain size. Once its size fell below that point, they no longer had the manpower and infrastructure to pull it off. That's why I came up with the Technocracy Katascopic Project as a means to get people more involved in the overall plan towards Technocracy. You can read about that in the above link, with its own links for more information.
Oxymandias wrote:Therefore the blog would be overall a great contribution to the Technocratic community.
*Note: I think another good idea is a forum to discuss your articles and Technocracy that is open to everyone is well-overdue
Actually I had run my own forum on my website for quite a while. I had to shut it down eventually though due to a combination of lack of use and one troublemaker. When my novel becomes available I fully plan to have a full website and forum for it and anyone who wants to talk about it and related topics. (Yes, I'm being optimistic.)
Oxymandias wrote:**Note: Although you will disagree with this, I recommend that you don't mention the word "Technocracy" anywhere in your articles. Don't even mention words like Meritocracy and Noocracy either. These words have bad stigma among Westerners due to their association with elitism. Please use "Post-Scarcity" as the identifier for the society the blog describes or a made-up word like afthocracy (comes from the greek word "afthonía" which means "abundance").
Actually I don't mention "technocracy" in my novel, because I'm already aware of the baggage it has. Instead I use the word "Technate", which I figure virtually no one as heard of and sounds appropriately science-fictiony.
So overall, good ideas!
"Only when there is zero opinion in the arrivation of social decisions in the operation of a technological totality will there be a maximum of personal selectivity, choice, and opportunity." -Howard Scott