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INTRODUCTION TO TECHNOCRACY

"I often say that if you can measure that of which you can speak, you know
something of
your subject: but if you cannot measure it, your knowledge is meager and
unsatisfactory. " - Lord Kelvin

� Part 1: Definitions And Laws

� Part 2: The Technologist Looks At Social Phenomena

� Part 3: Thermodynamic Interpretation of Social Phenomena

� Part 4: References And Notes

Technocracy Study Course: Selected Reading List For Laymen From The Literature Of
Science; Other Scientific, Statistical, And Historial References Books; A Note On
The
Work Of Thorstein Veblen

Originally printed as a hardcover book by The John Day Company in 1933 (before
March, most likely). This edition says that it was assembled and edited by Fredrick
L.
Ackerman, Harold Ward, M. King Hubbert and Dal Hitchcock.

First printing (by Technocracy, Inc.), 1936 by Section 1, R.D. 12349, Vancouver,
B.C.
Scanned in from the third printing, 1938 (new edition). In print until 1949.
Formatted
and lightly proofread by Trent.

Part 1: Definitions And Laws

"In physical science... the first step is to define clearly the material system
which we
make the subject of our statements. This system may be of any degree of complexity.
It
maybe a simple material particle, a body of finite size, or any number of such
bodies,
and it may even be extended so as to include the whole material universe." � James
Clerk Maxwell, Matter and Motion

DEFINITIONS
Mass

The quantity of matter in a body, or more correctly, the degree of resistance to

changes
of state exhibited by a body. (Weight, however, is an expression of the force with
which
the earth attracts the body.)

Motion

Change of position (displacement of a body with reference to another body). The

determination of displacement involves two quantities: the length of the path
traversed
between the given points, and the direction of the path from origin to terminus.
(Vector)

Force

That which changes, or tends to change, the state of rest or uniform motion of a
body. It
is only through such changes that force can be detected or measured.

Energy

The capacity of a body or material system for doing work. Kinetic energy: Possessed
by
a body in virtue of its motion; summarized in the formula K.E. = l/2mv2, where m is
the
mass of the body and v its velocity. Potential energy: Possessed by a body in
virtue of its
position or configuration. (The case of water at the top of a fall, of a body
suspended
above ground, of a taut cord or a coiled spring.)

Work

A force is said to do work when its point of application is displaced in the

direction of its
application. (Cox) Expressed more generally by James Clerk Maxwell, work is 'the
transference of energy from one body or material system to another. The system
which
gives out energy is said to do work on the system which receives it, and the amount
of
energy given out by the first system is always exactly equal to that received by
the
second.' Bear in mind that, in practice, allowance must be made for 'losses'
through
friction, air resistance, and heat; these losses, however, added to the total of
energy
effectively transformed into work, always equal the total energy originally
expended.

Power

The quantity of work done by a body or material system in a unit of time; more
tersely, a
time-rate of doing work. This scientific definition of power must be kept clearly
in mind
in all discussions bearing upon the operation of physical equipment of any kind: no

reference to 'power' is correct that does not state a quantitative relationship

between the
factor of work and the physical dimension of time.

LAWS

Newton's Three Laws of Motion

1 . Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight

line, except
insofar as it is compelled to change that state by impressed force. (This is
Galileo's
Principle of Inertia.)

2. Change of motion is proportional to the impressed force, and takes place in the
direction of that force. (From this law is derived the method of measuring force,
which
can be observed only in relation to changes of state in a body.)

3. To every action there is equal and, opposite reaction. (This states that all
force is of
the nature of a stress, that is, a mutual action between two bodies. Force could
not exist,
nor would it be necessary, if there were no inertia or resistance to overcome.)

The Two Laws of Thermodynamics

1 . The total energy of a body or system of bodies is a quantity which can neither
be
increased nor diminished by any mutual action of the bodies, though it may be
transformed into any one of the forms of which energy is susceptible. (Clerk
Maxwell)
This is the great Principle of the Conservation of Energy. Attempts to circumvent
or
violate it come under the head of perpetual motion of the first class.

2. The total energy of a material system (which includes its heat) tends to become
uniformly distributed throughout the particles of the system. This process is
described as
'unidirectional and irreversible,' and from any determinate energy state of the
system
(provided that no indeterminate external force is introduced) it is possible to
calculate
'the next most probable state' of the system. The final state of complete
distribution or
equipartition of energy is called the maximum entropy of the system. It is this law
which
in current physical theory is treated as a special case of the theory of
probabilities: the
state of a material system at any moment is a statistical expression of the
combined (and
individually indeterminate) states of the particles of which it is composed.
Part 2: The Technologist Looks At Social Phenomena

(formerly titled "The Technologist Looks at the Depression")

Frederick Ackerman - 1933

The state of bewilderment and sense of futility that hang like a pall over the
peoples of
Christendom are commonly laid to the Great War and the strange peace, conceived in
terms of mutual defeat, that marked its provisional close. These events are viewed
as the
immediate causal circumstances that gave rise alike to the decade of golden

opportunities and its collapse in the relentless retreat of 'values' that continue
to march
past day after day in columns of three � 'high,' 'low,' 'close.'

But, as everyone knows, there were more remote events out of which the Great War
and
the unstable peace unfolded. And so, historians, statesmen, philosophers,
economists,
bankers, business men, and politicians explore the background in search of the
'fundamental' causes which they discuss in conflicting accounts of their
explorations.
Thus we are buffeted by events and by currents of opinion which bewilder and
confuse.

Living in the twentieth century, these explorers of the past would go to their work
under
guidance of the twentieth century point of view. But it happens in this fourth
decade of
the twentieth century that the current point of view covers an extremely wide area
of
thought with rapidly shifting frontiers. Within its boundaries the ancient
principles
(habits of thought) which guided men's action in the days of pagan antiquity still
do
service. We rationalize and debate after the manner of the schoolmen of the Middle
Ages: we think and act under the principles of right, equity, propriety, duty,
belief, and
taste as stabilized in the days of the handicraft guilds of Central Europe.

But during the last century and a half a series of ever-changing material factors
unfolded
at an accelerating rate within the field of industrial activity. Coincident with
the
introduction of these swiftly moving technological changes there developed, both
independently and consequent upon their introduction, a new matter-of-fact way of
looking at facts and events and of dealing with an ever-increasing range of
problems �
the modern, scientific point of view.

The eighteenth century saw the introduction of the powered machine, which was first
conceived as an extension of the hand operations of craftsmen. The close of the
nineteenth century witnessed the machine process occupying a dominant place in the
technological scheme and reshaping men's habits and methods of thinking. The turn
of
the century marked the introduction and the accelerating rise, under guidance of
science,
of the modern, continuous technological processes of production. In this new
industrial
order the machine was no longer conceived as an extension of the hand tool; it
became a
moving mechanical element in a sequence of events, the course and rate of which had

been arranged and ordered in strict accordance with the exact quantitative
calculations of
science. Men in the fields of scientific inquiry and technological research, the
same as
those directly engaged in technological employment, gradually ceased to think in
terms
of workmanlike efficiency of a given cause working to like effect: they began to
think in
terms of process.

The work of accounting for the present state of affairs falls, naturally, to those
whose
interest and preoccupations revolve about the institution of absentee ownership
with our
system of pecuniary evaluation and pecuniary canons of taste. They explain the
present

in terms of this institution, its system of evaluation, and the range of faiths and
beliefs
that stand to support it. It follows that these men who so attempt to account for
the
present situation, as well as those who are called upon to do something about it,
are
drawn from occupations most widely removed from the technological and scientific
thought and activities which serve to mark off and distinguish the last half
century from
the entire period of time that lies in the background.

But the men of science and of technology are likewise concerned with the present
precarious state of the common welfare and the general atmosphere of futility, and
it is
not to be wondered at that they should turn their attention to the causal
circumstances
out of which the present condition of affairs unfolded. Nor is it to be wondered at
that
they should interest themselves in what should be done about it.

A NORMAL COURSE OF EVENTS

They read the accounts of historians, statesmen, and economists with their constant

references to a 'normal' course of things. To the scientist, this insistence upon a

'normal'
course of things or a beneficent run of events bars out any serious consideration
of the
explanations offered. Nor do these scientists and technologists understand why all
these
explorers should forever busy themselves with the facts of ownership and pecuniary
values while ignoring altogether the accelerating rate of change that is going on
in the
processes of technology. They do not understand the current accounts of what has
happened or the proposals as to what should be done about it. For the entire range
of
facts and events dealt with lies completely outside the range of facts and events
with
which they are concerned in their own accounts, viz., the accelerating rate of
change in
the state of the industrial arts and the corresponding accelerating rate of energy
conversion. To these men of matter-of-fact and of quantitative measurements, with
their
knowledge of our energy resources and our ways and means of turning them to the
account of the common welfare, the current proposals looking toward a return to
better
times are utterly beside the point.

A cleavage has arisen within the field by which things and events are apprehended.
The
words, phrases, and concepts of modern science and of technology which pass current

among men engaged in scientific research and in technological production have no

meaning whatsoever to those engaged in business and the affairs of the market, or
who
direct the financial affairs of corporations, states, or nations. And by the same
token, to
the men accustomed to the exact quantitative measurements of materials and work �
that is to say, to the quantitative measurements of energy resources and energy
conversion' and to the men who deal with the problems of balanced load, the current

discussions � of 'value,' of fluctuating prices, of the gold standard, of changing

interest
rates, of items of pecuniary wealth which are at the same time items of debt � are
merely discussions looking toward a readjustment of the factors which prevent them

from doing their work. For the modern technologist does not view production as a
process that terminates at a point which may be designated as F. 0. B. plant.
Production
would be a meaningless activity if the goods produced could not be utilized. Hence,
they
view the matter of production and distribution as a single problem-the
technological
problem of (quantitatively) balanced load.

Through endless books, magazines, newspapers, and reports of conferences and

discussions we are familiar with what the statesmen, bankers, economists, business
men,
and philosophers have to say as to what brought on this depressing state of affairs
and as
to what should be done about it. While men in the field of science have
occasionally
explored the general field of the past and have voiced opinions as to the present,
the men
in technology have had little to say. Since the technologist occupies the center of
the
stage in the field of modern industry, we may well ask him to indicate what he
finds
when he explores the background, and what he finds when he looks in his matter-of-
fact
way at current events.

FACTUAL HISTORY

When the technologist explores the past, his interest centers, naturally, upon
items of
evidence which disclose the methods -- the techniques � through which man has
turned
the things of his environment to account. The records of archaeology yield
relatively
little that he can use; for men in this field have been preoccupied with other
matters than
the state of the industrial arts, quantitative measurements of the energy resources

available in a given case, and the quantitative relation between the rates at which
man
has been able to convert energy to use forms. But even so, from the fragments of
archaeological explorations and the more recent explorations of scientists, he has
been
able to put together the outlines of a quantitative record of the changing states
of the
industrial arts and men's unfolding ability to turn the energy resources of his
environment to account. And the outstanding feature of that record is the
controlling
nature of the prevailing technology at any given time upon the course of subsequent

events -- that is to say, upon social change. From the viewpoint of the
technologist, man
has experienced but few sweeping social changes � that is, few conversion changes
in
the rates of energy; and these are widely separated in point of time. The
domestication of
the crop plants and the development of them in a dim, historic past thrust man into
a
larger control of his environment � that is, to use a technological term, into a
new
energy state. In the same way, the domestication of animals gave him new powers to
command and carried him a little further along the way of control. The introduction
of
these factors, each in its turn, wrought revolutionary changes in the social scheme
under
which he had lived.

But following these two technological changes man did little from the dawn of
history to
the middle of the eighteenth century to increase his powers or to alter his energy
state.

What man could produce during that long period was largely a matter of what he
could
produce with his hands. Vast stores of energy were available then, as now, but his
use of
them -- his ability to convert energy to use forms � was largely limited to the
rate at
which he could turn the energy of the food which he consumed into work performed by

hand. Man's own body, whether free or slave, was the only energy conversion engine
available over a period of countless centuries.

Up to the middle of the eighteenth century the number of man hours required to
cultivate
an acre, or to quarry a yard of stone or to transport it, or to perform any given
piece of
work, remained approximately the same as was the case of 6,000 years earlier. We
are in
the habit of thinking of this stretch of some sixty centuries as one of ever-
changing
social schemes. It is true, forms of government passed, one after the other; and
cultural
patterns ran their course from Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, to the Middle Ages
and
the Renaissance of Europe. But to the technologist these sixty centuries cover a
steady
state of man's ability to deal with the material factors of his environment. They
cover a
steady state in the rate of energy conversion.

For, during the entire period, the standard of living � the common welfare � was
definitely, quantitatively limited to the work that man could do with his hands,
tools, and
a few crude machines that added little to his power.

That these sixty centuries of recorded history constitute a steady state in respect
to the
industrial arts, technology and the rate of energy conversion and the social and
political
schemes that unfolded during the period, will be more readily apprehended when we
deal, quantitatively, with the magnitudes of energy resources available during the
entire
period, and the rapidly accelerating rate of change that has taken place during the
last
century and a half.

Before we may proceed with the technologist to an examination of the present social

structure it will be necessary to establish an understanding as to the meaning of

certain
terms that he constantly uses and as to what it is that he rates as important.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE TECHNOLOGIST

When he looks at the world he notes that everything that moves, including the human

body, does so by an expenditure of energy which may be expressed in terms of

calories
or joules. An automobile does work because it is able to utilize the heat energy
contained
in gasoline. A waterwheel turns by utilizing the energy contained in the water in
motion
at a waterfall. The human body runs by means of the energy contained in the food it
'burns.' All of these are measurable in calories or joules. And he rates this as a
fact of
great importance.

All forms of heat-transfer, or of work done, are said to involve a transfer of

energy-
energy being the capacity for doing work. Thus a waterfall is continuously
expending
energy regardless of whether this energy is utilized or not. If a pound of coal is
burned,
the energy in that coal may or may not be used to drive an engine or to do other
work.
But whether or not work is done, after the coal is burned the energy it contained
has
been irretrievably spent. It is through the expenditure of energy that we convert
all raw
materials into use forms and,operate all the equipment which we use. It is through
the
expenditure of energy that we live.

Now, we can measure the heat energy contained in a pound of coal by burning the
coal
in a tightly closed vessel surrounded by water and noting the rise in temperature
of the
water.

One kilogram calorie of heat is the amount of heat required to raise the
temperature of
one kilogram (1 kilogram = 2.2 lbs.) of water one degree centigrade.

Likewise, the unit of work is the erg or the joule. One joule is the amount of work

required to lift a one pound weight to the height of 0.7373 feet. One joule is
equal to ten
million ergs.

Also, there is a definite relation between work and heat or between joules and
calories.
If we let a one pound weight fall through a height of 0.7373 feet in such a manner
that
all of its energy is converted into heat � instead of turning a pulley or lifting a
weight �
one joule of work is also done. This, in turn, will produce enough heat to raise
0.239
grams of water 1 degree centigrade, or heat equivalent to 0.239 gram-calories (1
gram-
calorie = 1/1000 kilogram-calorie).

It is in these terms that the technologist thinks when he considers the 'standard
of living,'
rather than in dollars, pounds and shillings, francs, marks, or rubles.

In all social systems there are various forms and amounts of motion. Stated
positively,
social change involves a change in the technique whereby people live. We shall
define as
a social steady state any society in which the quantity per capita of physical
motion, or
energy expended, of the whole society shows no appreciable change as a function of
time. Such a society would be one in which the methods for the production of
commodities and operation of services do not essentially change.

On the other hand, a society wherein the methods of obtaining a livelihood, or the
average quantity of energy expended per capita, undergo appreciable change as a
function of time, is said to exhibit social change.

Since social change has been defined above in terms of physical action, then any
method

of its measurement must likewise be physical and all social activity whether in a
steady
or changing state must obey the laws of physics and must likewise be subject to the

limitations imposed by those laws.

The fundamental physical concept for relating and measuring all forms of physical
activity is that of work, or energy expended. By work the physicist means the
application of energy to mass to produce a resultant change of state.

ENERGY CONVERSION AND SOCIETY

Upon this basis we can measure quantitatively the physical status of any given
social
system. Take any non-machine society: The total energy used by that society is the
energy of the food eaten by man and his domestic animals, and the fuel burned. Man
himself is the chief engine. The energy per capita is this total amount expended
divided
by the population.

Prior to the advent of modern science and technology a little more than a century
ago, it
is doubtful whether any society had ever exceeded an extraneous energy consumption
of
2,000 kilogram calories per capita per day. Since all human activity is determined,

quantitatively, by the amount of energy consumed, we can truly say that all
history, until
recently, has not witnessed an appreciable social change, in the sense herein
defined.

The steady state of any social system of the past was set up and limited as such
because
no nation in history possessed any other engine of energy conversion than that of
the
human being, limited in size from 125 to 200 pounds and in total output to
1,500,000
foot-pounds per eight hour day. The rate of doing work of the human engine laid
down
the limits of mechanical operation of any social unit possessing this type of
engine
alone. No change in the rate of work done in any social system was evident until
after
the advent of technology in the early nineteenth century. The introduction of other
engines of energy conversion in the nineteenth century, and the discovery of new
materials and new energy sources in the last hundred years, have brought about a
change
of rate impossible of envisagement in any social system founded on the human
engine.
Not until other energy resources became available through other engines of energy
conversion was man in his engine category relieved from the age-long limitations of
one
of the lowest rates of output per weight for size we know of. The human engine in
an
eight hour day is only capable of producing work approximately at the rate of 1/10
horsepower during that time.

The first engine of energy conversion other than the human body, free or slave,
that was
of social significance, was the crude Newcomen atmospheric steam engine of 1712, of

approximately seven horsepower. This engine reached its maximum in 1772 in the
Chasewater development with an energy conversion of 76 1/2 hp. Here is a 765-fold

increase of rate over the human engine. In the late eighteenth century, Watt
brought out
the first true steam engine. This type reached its maximum in the 2,500 hp. Corliss
at the
Centennial Exhibition of 1876. The reciprocating engine of conversion reached its
maximum rate of output in the marine triple-expansion development of the '90's. In
this
type the rate of energy conversion jumped to 234,000 times the rate of the human
engine, as calculated on a twenty-four hour basis, for this engine can work three
shifts
every day.

The introduction of the turbine and the waterwheel brought in still newer types of
energy
conversion. While the first turbines ever made were less than 700 hp. per unit, and
the
first turbine ever installed in a central station was only 5,000 hp., they have
risen in rated
output until units of approximately 300,000 hp. are operated today � 3,000,000
times
the output of a human being on an eight hour basis. But the turbine runs twenty-
four
hours a day. Therefore the total output of the above turbine is 9,000,000 times the
rate of
output of the first engine of energy conversion socially used.

The first station turbine consumed 6.88 pounds of coal per kw. hour in 1903. By
1913
the central station coal consumption in the U. S. had fallen to 2.87 pounds per kw.
hour;
in 1929 the average was approximately 1.2; today, the more efficient stations are
operating at less than 1 pound per kw. hour.

From 6.88 to less than one pound measures this rate of change in three decades.

Waterwheels were known to the ancients, but even in the eighteenth century, the
most
efficient size of waterwheels seemed to be limited to twenty feet in diameter,
although
larger ones were built. The famous pumping machine at Marly which worked the
fountains at Versailles was driven by fourteen waterwheels which delivered 75 hp.
in
actual work, or not more than 5 hp. per wheel. The waterwheels of the Middle Ages
and
the ancients can be dismissed, therefore, as primitive toys, as their installation
costs in
most cases were not justified by the small increase in the energy conversion rate
which
they made possible. Their installation was not practical until the development by
Fourneyron in 1832 of his original 50 hp. turbine type wheel. In 1855 an 800 hp.
turbine
was installed in the Parisian water works at Pont Neuf. Thompson and Francis
developed the crude reaction water turbine, but the perfection of this type of
engine did
not come until after the development of the steel industry and the discovery of
electrical
generation.

The water turbines installed in Power House #1 at Niagara Falls have risen in size
from
5,000 hp. each in 1891 until today we build them over 60,000 hp. and could build
100,000 hp. units, were it necessary.

Just as we can say that the maximum rate of output of ancient Egypt rarely exceeded

150,000 hp: for eight hours on a basis of 1,500,000 adult workers, we can point out
that
prior to the first quarter of the nineteenth century of our own era, engines of
conversion
were under two hundred pounds in average weight with an output of 1/10 hp. per
unit,
per eight hour day.

When, only a century ago, the first significant change in the rate of energy
conversion
occurred, it marked the beginning of a social change, the magnitude and rate of
which
had never been dreamed of by a pre-nineteenth century brain. But once under way,
wave
after wave of technological development has swept the processes of each decade into

yesterday's seven thousand static years. The first engine, developed by Newcomen,
did
not survive the century. The second change in energy conversion only survived a
century
to be replaced by a newer engine of higher output. For six thousand years of social

history no change in the rate of doing work was effected, except that in the
metabolism
of the human engine of conversion due to dietary changes. Within the last hundred
years
we have multiplied the original output rate of that human engine by 9,000,000, in a
modern energy conversion unit. Most of this 9,000,000 (or 8,766,000) has occurred
in
the last twenty-five years.

This tremendous acceleration in the rate of doing work has altered the entire
physical
complex of social existence. We are able to produce physical substances and forms
impossible of production except where a tremendous energy input per day is
available.
We gather the materials and produce physical forms that could not have been
attempted
nor probably even envisaged in a social mechanism possessing only that low rate
engine
of conversion, the human being. This tremendous acceleration in the rate of doing
work
has reached a point at which the energy available is in such huge volume that we
can
affect transformations at continually accelerating rates proportional to the amount
of
energy consumed per given unit of time.

CHANGE IN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE

The social mechanisms of the past six thousand years had no means of energy
conversion available other than the human body. When tillage was a matter of
spading
the soil, a man could spade about one-eighth of an acre per day of twelve hours, or
at the
rate of ninety- six man hours per acre. Today, the large tractor-drawn sixty disc
or duck
foot of modern power farming has reduced the man hours per acre to 0.088. Thus we
have reached a rate of tilling soil which is more than eleven hundred times that of
the
human engine.

Brickmakers for over five thousand years never attained on the average more than
450
bricks a day per man; a day being over ten hours. A modern straightline continuous
brick
plant will produce 300,000 bricks a day with twenty men on the machine. Even a
century ago in these United States one man produced not more than twenty-five tons
of

pig iron per year, while it took another man a year to produce eight hundred tons
of iron
ore. In 1929 in one pit we mined ore on the Mesabi Range at the rate of 20,000 tons
per
man per year and in six weeks moved a greater tonnage than that of the Khufu
pyramid
at Gizeh, while our best blast furnace technique has made it possible for thirty
men
working in crews of ten to produce 300,000 tons per annum, or for one man to
produce
at the rate of 10,000 tons of pig iron per annum.

In 1830 the United States had slightly over 12,000,000 population and was
witnessing
but the crude beginnings of new means of energy conversion; for at that time from
coal
and timber it was producing less than seventy-five trillion B.T.U. (British Thermal

Units) per annum in order to drive its factories, its ships, and operate all other
equipment. Nineteen twenty-nine saw the United States with a population of
approximately 122,000,000 � an increase of ten times; but its energy produced had
risen
to almost twenty-seven thousand trillion B.T.U. or 353 times the energy conversion
from
the coal and water power of 1830. Most of this increase has occurred since 1900,
for in
that year we only produced eight thousand trillion B.T.U. While our bituminous coal

production has leveled off to slightly over 500,000,000 tons per annum, we have
been
consuming ever-increasing amounts of gas, oil, and hydroelectric power, tending,
temporarily at least, to limit the total rate of coal consumption.

We are face to face with an immediate depletion of certain energy and mineral
resources
in combination with this rising productive capacity. We may very well ask ourselves

where we shall obtain the iron ore of the future even if there were no other wastes

involved, when we consider the annual depletion due to the production of

22,000,000,000 tin cans, most of which go to decorate our garbage dumps.

Assuming that we have the same number of oil consuming units (motor cars) as we
have
today, we may also ask where the oil is going to come from in the next ten or
twenty
years. Oil production rose from its discovery in 1859 to 64,534,000 barrels in
1900. In
1929 it had jumped to a billion barrels a year. Let us realize that the average oil
pool
drops 96 percent from flush flow within four years. Of the approximate 1,000,000
oil
wells drilled on the North American Continent since 1859, oil is still coming from
323,000 wells, but less than 6,000, or about 2 percent, of the latter supply the
bulk of our
oil.

RESULTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE

If one plots a graph of the production capacity expansion of any basic industry on
this
Continent, such as iron or steel, for the last 100 years, he will note that the
industry
showed no great development until about 1870. After 1870 and until the turn of the
century the development of every basic industry increased at a rate which
accelerated
with time (in other words, the annual rate of increase of production was itself
increasing

with time).
Finally, in the development of each industry, a point was reached after which the
rate of
expansion became less each succeeding year � the rate of production capacity
expansion
changed from a period characterized by an ever-increasing acceleration to one of an

ever-decreasing acceleration.

The point on the curve at which this occurs is called the 'point of inflection.'
The point of
inflection for American railroad development occurred in 1900. The inflection point
on a
composite curve, made up of the basic industries in the United States, occurred
about the
year 1921.

Similarly, if one plots the total number of plants or amount of physical equipment
for
any basic industry during the last hundred ears, he will note that the total number
of
plants increases with time until their total reaches a maximum. Then, with
technological
improvement and resulting quantity production methods, obsolescent equipment is
abandoned and the total number of operating plants declines.

This is clearly illustrated, for instance, by the clay products industry. In 1 849
there were
2,121 plants in the United States. The number increased to a maximum of 6,535
plants
in 1889, and then by 1929 had declined to 1,749, or below the level of 1849, and
all this
with an increasing rate of production and an increase in total production capacity.

During the period of industrial development which we are considering, the number of

man hours of human effort required per unit output was greatest one hundred years
ago,
and has declined steadily ever since, approaching the limit of zero in all our best

practices. The total employment in a given industry began small and increased as
the
industry expanded until as a result of technological improvement and larger scale
mechanization the rate of replacement of men by machines exceeded the rate of
expansion, of the industry, at which time a maximum of employment was reached, and
since when total employment has declined. It has been observed in the major
industries
that, wherever mechanization has taken place, employment or man hours tends to
become an inverse function of the rate of total output and, after passing the peak,
tends
to decline proportionally to the decline of the energy per unit produced.

In 1920 the railroads of the country employed 2,160,000 men; in 1930 they employed
1,518,000 men; and in December 1931, 1,164,000 men. In 1929 the carriage of freight

was 6.3 percent greater than in 1920.

The automobile industry reached its maximum employment, exclusive of body and
accessory plants, in 1923, producing 4,180,450 units with 241,356 employees. In
1929,
with 226,116 employees and with a total output of 5,621,715 cars, man hours per car
fell

from 1,291 in 1904 to 133 in 1923 and again to 92 in 1929.

The flour milling industry had 9,500 plants in 1899, which increased to a maximum
of
11,700 mills in 1909, only to decline by 1929 to 4,022 mills. This industry had
32,200
wage earners in 1899, a maximum of 39,400 in 1914 and only 27,000 in 1929. The
wheat ground in the meantime increased continuously from 471 million bushels in
1899
to 546 million bushels in 1929.

These are merely averages from industries selected at random. One of the more
striking
instances which might be considered is the A. O. Smith plant in Milwaukee with its
output of 10,000 automobile chassis frames per day with 208 men in the plant, or
the
Corning electric lamp plant in New York with its output of 650,000 lamp globes per
machine per day � an increase per man of 550 times that of the method previously
employed.

After 1850 displaced workers were reabsorbed in the expansion of general industrial

development. Machinery and equipment could be made only by hand-tool methods;

consequently tremendous numbers could be reemployed. Today the development of new
industry does not mean any considerable increase in national employment, except
temporarily in its formative stages. The moment a new industry reaches the state of

organization defined as complete mechanization or, in other words, when it becomes

a
technological mechanism, employment drops sharply, always tending to further
decrease. The production of new equipment for a new industry today means no great
change in the numbers employed in machine tool fabrication, as the same process of
mechanization has occurred in this field as elsewhere.

ENERGY: PRODUCTION AND POPULATION

All these changes have been made possible by the finding of methods of generating
energy other than that of human toil and through the development of a concomitant
technology. The cases cited above are but a few instances of the effect of the new
methodology which is applicable to any process of production involving repetitive
action.

In a simple agrarian society the only means of increasing the standard of

livelihood was
by the application of more human effort to the soil resources, or, stating it in
another
way, only by lengthening working hours. But by the application of technology we now

have reached the point where more goods are produced by increasing the total amount
of
energy consumed and decreasing the energy per unit produced � the process
automatically resulting in a decrease of the amount of human labor required.

It follows that, under our present system, if technology is extended into more
fields of

social activity, the rate of production tends to outstrip the rate of population
growth and
the rate of possible consumption growth, causing simultaneously an ever-increasing
unemployment. This process is observable over the period of the last thirty years
in
every industry for which statistics are available, and this includes every major
industry
on the North American Continent.

Malthus assumed sustenance to be the limiting factor of population growth. Even

today
Dr. Pearl and Prof. East are worried over sustenance requirements of the American
social system of tomorrow. Of the total per capita energy consumption of the United

States today only about 7 percent is directly involved in sustenance, the remainder
going
toward the operation of the social mechanism. The energy involved in the operation
of
our social structure here in the United States is 15 times as much as the energy
consumed in sustenance. So, long before we of this present century have to concern
ourselves on this score, we shall be forced to predicate our population growth on
the
probable rate of the energy conversion of this Continent as a whole.

THE FIRST SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORY

When the technologist looks at the unfolding events of the past six thousand years,
he
notes the same changes in political frontiers and systems, in thought, and in
theories of
the outer manifestation of the industrial arts, as noted by other men who have
looked at
the same train of unfolding activities. But his insistence upon a quantitative
analysis of
the technique whereby men have lived leads him to view these changes in a new
light.
He speaks of the period from the dawn of history to the middle of the eighteenth
century
as six thousand static years because the social changes that occurred during that
period
did not appreciably increase man's ability to organize for his use the energy
resources of
his environment. The changes that occurred were all, therefore, in his view, of a
single
order of magnitude. In Egypt, Greece, Rome, and in Europe of the Middle Ages, the
social order succeeded in organizing a particular area of the world's surface, and
in
operating it to obtain the maximum security under its inherent limitations. These
limitations prescribed that its upper limits were 2,000 kilogram-calories of
extraneous
energy consumption per capita per day. We have no instance in previous social
history of
an agrarian economy that exceeded these limits.

Social mechanics remained in this order of magnitude until the advent of technology
in
the middle of the eighteenth century, after which the limits of energy consumption
rose
in the United States to 150,000 kilogram-calories per capita per day. This increase
from
2,000 to 150,000 kilogram-calories constitutes a social change from one order of
magnitude to another. In ancient social mechanisms practically all of the total per
capita
energy consumption was required for sustenance; in twentieth century America
approximately ninety-three percent of our total energy is consumed in the operation
of
our social structure. Our society involves a greater expenditure of energy per
capita per

day than any other social mechanism, past or present. We have achieved a
fundamental
social change which is susceptible to measurement in physical units.

While the modern technologist lives and does his work under the Price System he has
to
do his thinking in other than pecuniary terms; there is no way of avoiding that.
The
nature of his work, the facts, relations, and forces handled by him impose the use
of
unvarying standards whereby he may make exact measurements. His world is one of
materials, energy resources, quantitative relations, and rates of energy
conversion.
Without unvarying standards of measurement the modern processes of production could

not be carried on. Quantitative measurements of materials, of energy flow, of

energy
conversion, of work-constitute essentials.

While financiers and business men have occupied positions of authority and control
in
the fields of production, the technologist has designed the machines, the engines,
and the
continuous processes that account for the present rate of energy conversion. Within

narrow limits he has worked with freedom, so that it may be said that he has been
the
principal agent in bringing on the present industrial capacity. But he has had
nothing to
do with the methods of distribution. Financial business has not only exercised
complete
control over this field and dictated what should be produced, regardless of the
resources
available, but has also failed in the distribution of the ever-increasing volume of
goods
and services released by the accelerating rates of energy conversion.

THE NECESSITY OF MEASUREMENT

When the technologist looks at the processes of distribution, as he is forced to do
at the
present juncture, a number of things thrust themselves upon his attention. He notes

immediately that all measurements in this field of activity are made by a pecuniary
stand
that is continuously variable, and that all relations are expressed as prices. He
notes that
price controls the utilization of energy resources, the rate of flow of materials
and labor
into the productive processes, and the flow of goods and services into the field of
use or
consumption. The only feature of the system that seemingly cannot be brought under
the
jurisdiction of price control is the rate of energy conversion, which is a function
� that is
to say, the outcome � of man's increasing ability in turning things to account. All
this
constitutes a situation which is obviously alien to the technologist's world of
thought,
theory, and action.

When the technologist looks at the magnitude of our pecuniary wealth, he notes that
the
items � bonds, mortgages, and instruments of loan credit of one sort and another �
which foot up to a truly grand total, constitute the same items that foot up to an
equally
grand total of debt. He also notes that pecuniary wealth cannot be created without
first
creating a corresponding item of debt. For the purposes of industry, these items
are
purely fictitious. But he notes that there is a definite purpose behind the
creation of these

fictitious items in the current scheme, and that they serve the purpose for which
they
were created. He notes that they afford the borrower a differential advantage in
bidding
against others for the use and control of industrial processes and materials, and
that they
afford him a differential advantage in the distribution of the material means of
industry.
He also notes that they constitute no physical addition to the material means of
industry
at large. It is obvious to him that funds of whatever sort are a pecuniary fact,
not an
industrial one; that they serve the distribution of the control of industry, not
its
materially productive work.

Before the run of current events set in in 1929, this factual statement of the case
was not
treated kindly by financiers and economists, nor will it be looked upon with favor
now.
But the nature and meaning of pecuniary wealth is becoming more obvious day by day.
The rapidly diminishing 'value' of our items of pecuniary wealth (which are at the
same
time items of debt, the burden of which is increasing at something like an inverse
ratio)
has in nowise affected the material items of our industrial plant.

The technologist examines our so-called standard of measurement, the monetary unit-
the
dollar. He notes that it is a variable. Why anyone should attempt, on this earth,
to use a
variable as a measuring rod is so utterly absurd that he dismisses any serious
consideration of its use in his study of what should be done.

He also considers 'price' and 'value' and the fine- spun theories of philosophers
and
economists who have attempted to surround these terms with the semblance of
meaning.
These terms, like the monetary unit, may have had meaning to men in the past but
they
mean nothing whatsoever to the modern technologist. The standard of measurement is
not relevant to the things measured; and the measuring rod and the things, measured
as if
they were stable, are all variables. We read thousands of newspaper captions such
as
this: 'FARM VALUE CUT BY SLUMP TO 45 BILLIONS. PRESENT WORTH
COMPARES WITH 79 BILLION AT WAR'S END-OFF 15 PERCENT IN YEAR'
(1931) - And then we read that farm income has fallen from $16,900,000,000 in 1919
to
$6,900,000,000 in 1931. It is, of course, quite possible to rationalize this in
terms of the
functions of the Price System; but after it has been rationalized it still remains
to the
technologist nothing more nor less than an item of nonsense. He simply refuses to
think
of that item of our technological equipment as waving up and down like that. It
doesn't.

To bring production and distribution into balance under such conditions would be
much
the same as attempting to determine how many pounds of electrical current would
come
to balance on a scale with a constantly increasing magnitude of fluctuating
density. To
the technologist the problem of balanced load under the Price System is a problem
of
that order of nonsense. It is not a problem � it is an impossibility.

Moreover to maintain a balance between production and consumption, with the number

of factors involved, requires quantitative calculations that lie beyond the

frontiers of
arithmetic. And so the technologist does not blame the men of business, finance,
and
politics for not doing what they are not prepared to do. But when he examines the
arithmetical impossibility of what they postulate as quantitatively possible, the
entire
system of financial business takes on the air of unreality; it becomes an
impossible
world of fairy-tale and magic.

REQUIREMENTS OF THE PRICE SYSTEM

The criterion of successful operation of a modern industry under the ancient Price
System is that it shall make a monetary profit. Another requirement of industry
under a
Price System is that it shall consider among its expenses the payment of a monetary

return upon the capital investment in that industry.

Regarding the first of these requirements, considering other factors to be constant

for the
moment, the profit possible from a given industry is a direct function of the
quantity that
can be sold. This fact is largely responsible for the ever- insistent demand of
business for
an ever-increasing production rate and expansion of trade, both domestic and
foreign.
From the point of view of the individual manufacturer under a Price System, the
ideal
conditions for continued prosperity are an infinite supply of cheap raw materials
and
labor, and an infinite market, so that there will never be a decline in the rate of
increase
of production.

In the internal operation of the industry, external factors being considered for
the
moment constant, the amount of profit that can derive from a given output is an
inverse
function of the internal cost of production. It has been found that the most
efficacious
way of reducing internal costs is by means of large scale quantity production by
processes as automatic as can be devised. This requirement dovetails perfectly with
the
first, or increased output, and the net result is the industrial trends that we
have observed
in our analysis of the growth of industry on the North American Continent.

Another factor which acts in the direction of those already enumerated, is that a
monetary return must be paid by the industry to the owner of the invested capital.
This is
in the form of interest and dividends. In other words, the bonded indebtedness must

draw interest. Suppose the rate of this interest on investments is taken to be 5

percent per
annum. Consider the total capital investment in the industries of this Continent.
Industrial investment is made largely by a very small percentage of the total
population,
and for that reason the 5 percent return accruing annually is for the most part re-
invested
in industry. In order that industry in turn can continue to pay the same percent
return on
the added investment it must expand by a similar increment of itself per annum. To
continue to satisfy these conditions industry would have to expand at a compound
interest rate � the rate of increase of production per annum must itself
continuously
increase ad infinitum � which is a physical impossibility.

Another way of increasing profits, under the laissez-faire competition of a Price

System,
is to cut down the cost of production by manufacturing inferior products. This will

increase the number of sales on an otherwise saturated market because of the

resultant
increased replacement rate.

The mathematical, that is, the arithmetical impossibilities of the assumptions

which
underlie what we are now attempting to do may be readily seen.

Suppose we level production off (as is being done) until an ample mean standard of
living compatible with our resource supplies could be provided for the inhabitants.
Then
under the Price System the requirement to cut internal costs to a minimum would
result
in an ever-increasing unemployment. If, on the other hand, an attempt were made to
keep all the people employed, the increasing rate of output per man hour would
result
quickly in an overproduction of goods that would of necessity extend toward
infinity.

Moreover, should industry level off, the lack of new industries or expanded old
ones in
which to invest the returns already accruing from existing investments, would tend
to
drive the interest rate to zero.

THE ORDER OF MAGNITUDE

The problem in its last analysis is primarily one of the effects of different
orders of
magnitude. The same fundamental characteristics are inherent in the change of
magnitude of any mechanism. Consider, for example, vehicles of transportation. The
ox-
cart is a sturdy, slow-motion vehicle. The driver of an ox-cart need have no
technical
training except to call 'whoa-haw' or 'gee-haw.' If the cart hubs a tree nothing
happens.
In fact there is no ordinary error that such a driver could commit that would be of
any
great consequence either to himself or his vehicle. Consider in like manner the
driver of
an express train. He must always be awake and alert. He must operate strictly
according
to the schedule and the signals. Violation of any one of a large number of
conditions can,
and probably will, wreck the train; and moreover the magnitude of the wreck will be

proportional to the mass and velocity of the train. In a like manner the duty of a
train
dispatcher, who controls the operation of not one train but many, is even more
exacting.
Thus we pyramid from a single train to a railway system, and from a railway system
to a
whole transportation system, and from a transportation system to a whole industrial

complex with the same generalizations that the larger and higher powered the
industrial
system, the more rigorously exacting must be its technical control in order to
avert a
wreck, and that moreover the wreck resulting from the lack of such control will be
of an
order of magnitude proportional to the size and the rate of operation of that
mechanism.

Against the picture of the man with the ox-cart or the man with the hoe we now have
the
accelerating upward sweep of the energy curves, and the curves of an enormous total

production; the accelerating declination of the curve of employment, involving

millions
of men, and the still more violent fall of the curve of man hours per unit produced
� the
sweep across the charts of all these curves, dealing with unprecedented magnitudes
and
numbers, constituting unmistakable evidence that the whole system is due to go out
of
balance in the not distant future.

THE DISALLOWANCE OF THE PRICE SYSTEM

What are we going to do under the conditions delineated above to avert the disaster
that
science and technology view as highly probable- which is science's way of saying
unavoidable? This question brings us to a subject exceedingly difficult to discuss:
for
habits of thought and connotations differ fundamentally in the world of business,
banking, and politics from those that obtain in the world of science, technology,
and the
field of materially productive work. Items of ownership, credit, debt, monetary
units of
value � dollars, shillings, etc. � or interest rates and relations, expressed as
prices,
constitute the realities in the former world; but they are unreal and fictitious
items in the
latter, where energy, resources, materials, rates of energy conversion, and use-
forms
constitute the real and basic things with which men deal.

Any scheme of social organization, designed to utilize our resources and ability
under
conditions of security, offered by technology in the name of science, will involve
the
disallowance of the Price System. Such a proposal will appear revolutionary from
the
viewpoint of the massive interests which now look after the far-flung rights of
ownership and seek vainly to keep the system under control and in balance.

The present is unique in that the ancient ways of politics, and the firmly
established
strategies of modern finance and business, may be observed in operation, while the
ways
of life and habits of thought are being transformed by the impact of modern science
and
the methods of modern technology. In contrast to the devious ways of politics, the
fumbling methods of finance and business with the concomitant, mysterious movements

of prices and values, and the anthropomorphic discussions concerning what The
Market
'wants to do' � all of which is carried as conspicuous news � we have the methods
of
science and technology. Our daily life throws us into intimate relations with the
peculiar
competence of modern technology. Out of this contact we have developed a high
regard
for the accuracy of its factual analyses, its mathematical measurements and
handling of
materials and forces, and for the validity of its procedure.

Although we live in a world of price and of speculation; of ever-increasing

magnitude of
fluctuations of 'value' of bonds, mortgages, equities, land, buildings, salaries,
wages,
savings; of numbers unemployed and an ever-decreasing number of jobs available; �
all

of which means the increase of insecurity and want, in the face of rapidly-
increasing
industrial competence �these very things force us to turn to science and
technology,
since the incompetence of all other agencies prompts the progressive forfeiture of
our
esteem.

SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

To modern civilized men, science has become the court of last resort. The
explanations
offered in the name of science are accepted under the new order of common sense
within
which we live and do our work. And so at the present time we are witnessing in the
body
of beliefs that stand to support the Price System and the current institutional
scheme, a
repetition of what has taken place repeatedly within the fields of belief which
sought to
support systems and institutions beyond their allotted day.

When the oncoming march of physical science arrived in the field of chemistry, it
found
its way blocked by alchemists, Philosopher's Stones, and phlogistonites. Its pace
was
retarded, its movement checked but for a moment, and it rolled on to occupy the
entire
field once so completely filled with all manner of superstitious theories and
opinions. It
ended with the total exclusion and complete intolerance of the obsolete methods of
philosophic speculation in these fields. The same onward march has been proceeding.
It
has driven the astrologer out of astronomy, the geographer out of meteorology and
seismology, the barber out of blood-letting, and Providence out of the field of
bacteriology.

Current events have already declared the pressing need for change. Around us we
hear
the rumbling of discontent that voices itself in Marxian philosophies, and the cry
of fear
that calls for a dictatorship. And now come the men of physical science who state
in no
uncertain terms that bolshevism, communism, fascism, and democracy are utterly
impotent to deal with the advanced technological situation in which we, of the
North
American Continent, find ourselves placed. None of these systems of thought and
action
will be given the mandate when the present system fails to function. North
Americans
are now calling upon physical science and technology to extend the frontiers of
their
domain.

Part 3: Thermodynamic Interpretation of Social Phenomena

(formerly titled "Integrating the Physical Sciences in Attacking Social Problems")

Howard Scott - 1933

Technocracy is a research organization founded in 1920, composed of scientists,

technologists, physicists, and biochemists. It was organized to collect and collate
data on
the physical functioning of the social mechanism on the North American Continent,
and
to portray the relationship of this Continent, and the magnitude of its operations
in
quantitative comparison with other continental areas of the world. Its methods are
the
result of a synthetic integration of the physical sciences that pertain to the
determination
of all functional sequences of social phenomena.

Technocracy makes one basic postulate: that the phenomena involved in the
functional
operation of a social mechanism are metrical. It defines science as 'the
methodology of
the determination of the most probable.' Technocracy therefore assumes from its
postulate that there already exist fundamental and arbitrary units which, in
conjunction
with derived units, can be extended to form a new and basic method for the
quantitative
analysis and determination of the next most probable state of any social mechanism.

Technocracy further states that as all organic and inorganic mechanisms involved in
the
operation of the social macrocosm are energy-consuming devices, therefore the basic

metrical relationships are: the factor of energy conversion, or efficiency; and the
rate of
conversion of available energy of the mechanism as a functional whole in a given
area
per time unit. Technocracy accordingly establishes a new technique of social
mensuration, that is to say, a process for determining the rates of growth of all
energy-
consuming devices within the limits of the next most probable energy state.

The Energy Survey of North America now being conducted by Technocracy in

association with the Industrial Engineering Department of Columbia University and
the
Architects' Emergency Committee (1932) has found that employment of this method has

not only yielded new data but has endowed already existing data with a new
significance. As the above method is one of measurement, it follows axiomatically
that
all processes of evaluation are excluded. Value has no metrical equivalent.

Value is defined by the economists as the measure of the force of desire. It has
its
physical manifestation in any one commodity unit by which all other commodities or
services are evaluated. Any society using a commodity method of valuation shall
herein
be said to be employing a Price System.

SOCIAL CHANGE

A 'social steady state' is a social mechanism whose per capita rate of energy
conversion
is not changing appreciably with time. Social change, on the other hand, may be
defined
as the change in the per capita rate of energy conversion, or the change from one
order
of magnitude to another in the social conversion of the available energy. All
social
history prior to the last century and a half, viewed technologically, may therefore
be
described as the record of a steady state. Only within the last hundred and fifty
years has

there been introduced a technique that has specifically caused social change.
Technology, as the executor of physical science, is the instrument for effecting
social
change.

During the 200,000 years prior to 1800 the biological progression of man in his
struggle
for subsistence on this earth, had advanced so far that the total world population
in that
year reached the approximate number of 850,000,000. During the subsequent 132 years

world population has attained such heights that it now exceeds a total of
180,000,000; in
other words, the population increase in the last 132 years has been greater than it
was in
the previous 200,000. Most of this increase in the human species has been made
possible
by the social introduction of technological procedures, that is, change in the
means
whereby we live as brought about solely by the introduction of technology.

A century ago these United States had a population of approximately 12,000,000;

whereas today our census figures give a total of over 122,000,000 � a tenfold
increase in
the century. One hundred years ago in these United States we consumed less than 75
trillion British Thermal Units of extraneous energy per annum; whereas in 1929 we
consumed approximately 27,000 trillion British Thermal Units � an increase of 353-
fold
in the century. Our energy consumption now exceeds 150,000 kilogram-calories per
capita per day; whereas in the year 1800 our consumption of extraneous energy was
probably not less than 1,600 nor more than 2,000 kilogram-calories per capita per
day.

The United States of our forefathers, with 12,000,000 inhabitants, performed its
necessary work in almost entire dependence upon the human engine, which, as its
chief
means of energy conversion, was aided and abetted only by domestic animals, and a
few
water wheels. The United States today has over one billion installed horsepower. In

1929, these engines of energy conversion, though operated only to partial capacity,

nevertheless had an output that represented approximately 50 percent of the total

work
of the world. When one realizes that the technologist has succeeded to such an
extent
that he is today capable of building and operating engines of energy conversion
that
have nine million times the output capacity of the average single human being
working
an eight hour day, one begins to understand the significance of this acceleration,
beginning with man as the chief engine of energy conversion and culminating with
these
huge extensions of his original one tenth of a horsepower. Then add the fact that
of this
9,000,000 fold acceleration 8,766,000 has occurred since the year 1900.

Stated in another way, if the total one billion installed horsepower of the United
States
were operated to full capacity, its output would be equivalent to the human labor
of over
five times the present total world population.

THE ARRIVAL OF CERTAINTY

Physical science has outdistanced present social institutions to such an extent

that man,
for the first time in history, finds himself occupying a position in which a
complete
utilization of his knowledge would assure the arrival of certainty in a continental
social
mechanism. Man, in his age-long struggle for leisure and the elimination of toil,
is now
at last confronted not only by the possibility but by the probability of this
arrival. Such a
new era in human life is technologically dependent only upon an extension of the
physical sciences and the equipment at hand.

But the pathway to that new era is blockaded with all the riffraff of social
institutions
carried over from yesterday's seven thousand static years. The law of the next
arrival is
depicted by the Gaussian curve of probability, or the next most probable energy
state.

America faces the threshold of the new era with the greatest total debt load ever
carried
by any social mechanism, a debt of over $218,000,000,000 against her physical
equipment and its operation. With the number of unemployed greater than the total
population of a century ago; with one of the most providential geologic set-ups of
any
continental area; still possessing more energy and mineral resources than any like
area
on the world's surface; having more than one billion installed horsepower of prime
movers wherewith to degrade available energy into use-forms; possessing a personnel
of
over 300,000 technically trained men in many varied engineering fields and more
than
4,000,000 men partially trained and functionally capable of operating the greatest
array
of productive equipment ever at the disposal of man-with all this, we have
nevertheless,
failed to profit from technological advances, and accordingly find ourselves, for
the first
time in history, with an economy of plenty existing in the midst of a hodgepodge of
debt
and unemployment.

AMERICA AND EUROPE

America can expect no help in the solution of this problem from any current social
theory. What has the world to offer toward such a solution? Europe discovered
America
in 1492. Today America is further away from Europe than she was when Columbus
sailed. The America of tomorrow will necessitate a rediscovery by Europe. European
culture and traditions have nothing of worthwhile importance to offer America in
this
twilight period preceding the dawn of a new era. No European importations of social
or
political theory can have the slightest value in solving the operational problems
facing
America today. Arising out of areas that lack adequate physical equipment and
trained
personnel, areas in which only a low percentage of the population is disciplined in

engineering thought processes, European socio-political philosophies and theories

are
the natural outgrowth of a more classified division and orientation of the
entrepreneur
sectionalism of the Price System. No theory of social action or governance now
existing
or proposed in Europe would in any way be endemic to that unique set-up of geologic

conformation, technique, equipment, and personnel peculiar to North America.

Russia, of whose population 92 percent were tillers of the soil under the ancien
regime
and which had meagre technical facilities and more musicians than technologists,
found
itself in the position of being compelled to inaugurate an industrial era under a
communistic Price System of production. Soviet Russia was forced to call upon the
outside world for technical assistance in order to perpetrate reproductions of
factories
already obsolescent from an obsolescent Price System. Russia, in its Parthian
retreat
from capitalism, has scored but a Pyrrhic victory. It mistook the name tag of one
phase
of the Price System for that system's entirety; it abandoned the tag, but retained
the
essential mechanics.

To approach social phenomena by substituting Hegelian for Aristotelian dialectics

may
be an interesting intellectual pastime, but it has no functional importance: it is
but one
more recrudescence of the philosophic futility implicit in European tradition.

The England of the Black Prince, with its population of 5,000,000, its wealth of
oak
timber, its hearty people drinking deeply of ale (made not from hops but from
barley
malt), its original resources of copper, lead, tin, iron ore, and coal � this
England
developed under the Price System of production. Inevitably, like the prodigal son,
England went forth into the world and squandered its inheritance among the harpies
of
world trade and debt creation.

The United Kingdom, with an area of 121,000 square miles and a population of
49,000,000 � or a density of 400 inhabitants per square mile � with arable land
amounting to only 23 percent of the total national area, finds itself in the
physical
position of possessing only a single energy resource, and that a declining one. Its
tin
gone, as well as its copper and lead, its iron requiring 56 percent foreign
beneficiation in
order to produce steel, its coal becoming more and more difficult to mine, the
United
Kingdom is fast retrogressing from its position as the possessor of easily
available
energy to its next most probable energy state as two islands off the coast of the
European
continent. A valiant race, fighting a losing battle, is displaying an admirable
fortitude in
the crisis that is resulting from excess population, declining resources, and
obsolescent
equipment operated by the antiquated methods of a Price System.

The United Kingdom will be forced by internal pressure to adopt measures even more
extreme than the flight from the gold pound. It may be compelled by the growing
disparity between its own industrial operation and the world trade balance to such
extremities as abandonment of monetary currency and the accompanying credit
structure. In that event, a British currency of pure fiat power might be attempted
as a last
desperate resort. The present deflationary program may be reversed in the near
future to
one of inflation, a last straw grasped at in England's struggle for the export
markets of
the world. Sooner or later, in spite of British imperialism, the United Kingdom,
under a

Price System, will be forced to meet a situation that will be increasingly grave in
its
internal operation. There remains only the colonizing soporific of bestowing a
surplus
population of 35,000,000 on the overseas Dominions.

Fascism, that strange but natural partnership of the Italian political state and
vested
interests, is a process of consolidating all the minor rackets into one major
monopoly.
Such a condition brought with it the sequelae of discipline and sanitation that
necessarily
accompany complete trustification. Italy, which is insufficiently supplied with
energy
and mineral resources, which possesses only a limited amount of water power and
volcanic heat, which has some mercury and sulphur but no coal, oil, or gas, no iron
ore,
copper, tin, lead, or zinc, and which lacks a high enough percentage of arable land
to
grow sufficient foodstuffs for its own needs � Italy belongs to the geologic order
of
areas that cannot create and operate an industrial energy civilization. Fascist
Italy is
rapidly increasing its dangerous overload of population by granting national
bonuses to
large families in furtherance of its mare nostrum policy. Fascism is an attempt at
a last-
ditch defense of a Price System, an effort to maintain an unbroken front against
oncoming social change; but this unbroken front is spurious in that it is being
temporarily maintained by foreign importation of energy resource materials,
supplemented by the manna of the Lord.

NOW, A NEW CIVILIZATION

Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, and, in the Victorian age, Imperial Britain have all
led
the world in their day; each in turn has been the vanguard of civilization. The
past is
strewn with ruins of empire. Now there is but one continental area that from the
standpoint of its geologic set-up, equipment, personnel, and the state of its
technology is
competent and ready to inaugurate a new era in the life of man.

America stands on the threshold of that new era, but she will have to leave behind
all the
wish-fulfilling thought and romantic concepts of value that are the concomitants of
a
Price System. So, too, all philosophic approaches to social phenomena, from Plato
to �
and including � Marx, must functionally be avoided. Economics, that pathology of
debt,
not containing within itself any modulus or calculus of design or operation, must
likewise be discarded with the other historical antiquities. No political method of

arriving at social decisions is adequate in continental areas under technological

control,
for the scientific technique of decision arrivation has no political antecedents.

WEALTH AND INCOME

Under a Price System wealth arises solely through the creation of debt. In other
words,
Price System wealth consists of debt claims against the operation of the physical
equipment and its resultants. Physical wealth, on the other hand, is produced by

converting available energy into use-forms and services. The process of being
wealthy is
the degradation of the resultants of the above conversions into complete
uselessness-in
other words, total consumption. To be physically wealthy is not to own a car but to
wear
it out. Technology has introduced a new methodology in the creation of physical
wealth.
It is now able to substitute energy for man hours on the parity basis that
1,500,000 foot
pounds equals one man's time for eight hours. National income under the Price
System
consists of the debt claims accruing annually from the certificates of debt already
extant.
Physical income within a continental area under technological control would be the
net
available energy in ergs, converted into use-forms and services over and above the
operation and maintenance of the physical equipment and structures of the area.

Individual income under a Price System consists of units that are not comensurate
with
the quanta by which the rate of flow of the physical equipment is measured, and
upon
which the social mechanism depends for its continuance. Individualism is therefore
favored under a Price System, since individualism can obtain a monetary equivalent
proportional to the individual's ability to create debt. Individual income under
such a
system therefore depends on the extent to which advantage is exercised by means of
the
interference control that is dominant throughout the whole system of debt creation.
Individual income under technological control would consist of units commensurate
with the quanta by which the rate of flow of the physical equipment is measured
throughout the entire continental area. The unit income of the individual would be
determined by the period necessary in that area to maintain a thermodynamically
balanced load, that is to say, the time it takes for a complete cycle of the
operating and
production procedures to be completed.

Any unit of value under a Price System is a certification of debt. Any unit of
measurement under technological control would be a certification of available
energy
converted. Such units of certification would have validity only during the balanced
load
period for which they were issued. This method of producing physical wealth and
measuring its operation precludes the possibility of creating any kind of debt. It
also
eliminates the entire domain of philanthropy. Furthermore, all bonds, financial
debentures, and other instrumentalities of debt would cease to exist, since they do
not
have one iota of usefulness in the physical operation of such an area under
technological
control.

THE FORCE OF SOCIAL PROGRESSION

Technocracy, as a body of thought, poses the problem raised by the technological

introduction of energy factors in a modern industrial social mechanism. Continental

America possesses all the essential qualifications for such a mechanism-sufficient

energy and mineral resources; adequate water precipitation; more than enough arable

land of proper chemical stability; highly developed technological facilities backed

by a
trained personnel; powerful research organizations. All these things are entirely
sufficient to assure the continuance of a high energy standard of livelihood for at
least a
thousand years, if they are operated on a non-price basis with the technological
means
known at present.

The progression of a modern industrial social mechanism is unidirectional and

irreversible. Physically this Continental area has no choice but to proceed with
the
further elimination of toil through the substitution of energy for man hours. There
can be
no question of returning to premachine or pretechnological ways of life; a
progression
once started must continue. Retrogressive evolution does not exist.

PART 4: REFERENCES AND NOTES

Technocracy Study Course

Technocracy is dealing with social phenomena in the widest sense of that word; this
includes not only actions of human beings but also everything else which directly
or
indirectly affects their actions. Consequently, the studies of Technocracy embrace
practically the whole fields of science and industry. Biology, climate, natural
resources,
and industrial equipment, all enter into the social picture. Consequently, no one
can
expect to have any understanding of our present social problems without having at
least
a panoramic view of the basic relationships of these essential elements of the
picture. All
things on the earth are composed of matter, and therefore require a knowledge of
chemistry. These things move, and in so doing involve energy. An understanding of
these relationships requires a knowledge of physics. Industrial equipment, as well
as the
substances of which living organisms are composed, are derived from the earth; this

requires a knowledge of geology and earth processes. Man is himself an organism,

and
derives his food from other organisms; hence, a knowledge of biology is
necessitated.

The purpose of the Technocracy study course, which is for members only, is not to
give
to any person a comprehensive knowledge of science and technology, but rather to
present an outline of the essential elements of these various fields, as they
pertain to the
social problem, in a unified picture. Neither are these lessons a textbook. They
are
instead, a guide to study. The materials to be studied are to a great extent
already very
well written in various standard and authentic references and texts in the fields
of
science.

At the end of each lesson there is cited a series of references. If one is

sincerely
interested in learning what Technocracy is, one of the best means of doing so is by

mastering the basic material contained in these references, or its equivalent from
other
sources.

The scope of materials in this course of studies is so broad that it is very

doubtful that
any group will have among its members a single person competent to discuss all
topics.
It is quite probable, however, that there may be individual members who are
engineers,
physicians, and people with other branches of technical training. The procedure
therefore recommended for conducting the course is that of the seminar method-each
member of the group is a student, and none is the teacher. Under this method there
should be a permanent presiding officer, but discussion leaders should be chosen
from
among the group with topics assigned on the basis of making the best uses of the
talent
afforded by the group. Thus, for the matter and energy discussions, use should be
made
of members with training in physics, chemistry or engineering. For the biological
discussions use should be made of physicians, or of people having training in
biology.
For the mineral resources, people with a knowledge of geology should be the
preferred
leaders.

The above suggestions are offered only as guides to the Technocrats who are
studying
the Course. If special talent in the various fields is not available, then any
suitable leader
can direct the discussion, using the outline and references as sources of
information. The
important thing is to get a comprehensive view of the problem as a whole, rather
than of
its parts as unrelated scraps of knowledge. Following are descriptions of some of
the
books which Technocrats read in connection with the Study Course.

SELECTED READING LIST FOR LAYMEN FROM THE LITERATURE OF

SCIENCE

Dantzig, Tobias: Number, the Language of Science; A critical survey written for the

cultured non-mathematician. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1930; viii, 260 pages,
plates.

Mathematics has always stood in the popular mind as a symbol of everything

abstruse,
remote, final, hopelessly rigorous and correct: for this view we are still much
indebted to
the mathematical idealism of Pythagoras and Plato. Actually, however, no science
has
grown so slowly, followed more false leads, gone more astray in bogs of speculation
and
sterile intellectual jugglery. This excellent volume by a member of the United
States
Bureau of Standards can be recommended to the interested layman, not only for the
human charm with which the author invests the 'Queen of the Sciences, I but for the

substantial historical background it provides for a true appreciation of

mathematical
thought. Dr. Dantzig begins with 'number- sense' and continues through the early
gropings of arithmetic, geometry and algebra; discusses the rise and growth of
symbols;

the Irrational, Incommensurate, and Transcendental. Guided by such great figures as

Leibnitz, Fermat, Newton, Euler, Cantor, Gauss, Dedekind, Hilbert, we journey from
zero to the infinite: yet, if we are wise, we will recognize � as does Technocracy
� that
every step forward in this vast domain has not only been gained at a heavy cost,
but that
the gain itself is measured ultimately, by the success with which a new
mathematical
procedure can be utilized (through science and technology) to solve some problem of
the
actual world. If, as David Hilbert said, mathematics is a game played according to
certain rules, it is nevertheless a game played by fallible beings in their
unending efforts
not merely to understand but to dominate Reality.

Maxwell, James Clerk: Matter and Motion; reprinted, with notes and appendices by
Sir
Joseph Larmor. London, The Sheldon Press, (American distributors, The Macmillan
Co.), 1925; xv, 163 pages.

This remarkable little book by one of the greatest mathematical physicists of all
time
was first published in 1877: its reissue in 1920 is sufficient proof of the
vitality inherent
in all fundamental scientific thought. It is recommended because of the clear and
rigorous way in which are developed the concepts of force, motion, work, energy,
and
'material systems.' The treatment, although advanced and frequently mathematical,
should not prove a stumbling block to anyone with a fair knowledge of physics and a

genuine interest in the methods of science-which are, ultimately, those of strict

observation, correlation, and exact quantitative measurement. Particular attention
is
directed to the chapters on force and energy, which are basic to all phenomena
exhibiting
motion, and thus fundamental to an understanding of Technocracy. If the reader will

strive to appreciate and share Clerk Maxwell's lifelong interest in the 'go' of
things, he
will not only gain much from a careful study of this book, but find it both
possible and
profitable to approach social phenomena with something of the objective clarity
which
has always distinguished the conquests of science, and which now, through
Technocracy,
seeks to become effective in the domain hitherto consecrated to the speculations of

philosophy, the animosities of politics and the values of economics.

Andrade, E. N. DA C: The Mechanism of Nature; being a simple approach to modern

views on the structure of matter and radiation. London, G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 1930;
xii,
170 pages.

The seven chapters which make up this extremely readable book by one of England's
best known physicists consider such important matters as heat and energy, sound,
light,
and radiation; electricity and magnetism; the atom and the Quantum Theory.
Professor
Andrade has remarkable talent in exposition, and the reader is advised not to
permit his
enjoyment of the author's style to undermine his attention to the matters in hand.
Particularly noteworthy is the chapter on heat and energy, which provides excellent
material to supplement the more abstruse treatment of those subjects in Clerk
Maxwell's

book. The problems of heat transfer and energy exchanges are well posed and
clarified,
as is also the theory of probabilities as it applies in the kinetic theory of
gases. Light and
radiation, sound and vibration (the latter being Andrade's special field) are
skillfully
discussed, with many examples from common life, and references to such critical
experiments as those of Michelson and Morley. The chapters on the atom, and on
Quantum Theory are among the best short discussions of these rapidly changing
subjects
thus far written for the layman. Largely factual in character � and to this extent
liable to
correction through subsequent discoveries � this little volume will nevertheless go
far to
establish a finer appreciation of the importance of exact observation and close
reasoning
in dealing with natural phenomena: of which so many are now irrevocably part and
parcel of the social macrocosm studied by Technocracy.

Cajori, Florian: A History of Physics in its Elementary Branches; including the

Evolution of Research Laboratories; revised and enlarged edition. New York, The
Macmillan Co., 1929; xiii, 424 pages.

There can be no better foundation for an understanding of the physical sciences

than a
sound general knowledge of their history. For physics proper such a knowledge is
admirably supplied by this short but scholarly and readable volume by one of
America's
foremost historians of mathematics. The somewhat cursory treatment of ancient and
medieval science (which receives only thirty pages) is followed by chapters on the
Renaissance (Copernicus, Kepler, Stevinus, Galileo, Gilbert, Francis Bacon), and on
the
seventeenth and following centuries. The gradual progression of quantitative
physical
ideas is illustrated by constant reference to the work of such pioneers as Newton,
Boyle,
Black, Lavoisier, Laplace, and Huygens; with each step forward the basic concept of

energy is more firmly established until, in the twentieth century, atomic physics,
radioactivity, and the brilliant formulations of Max Planck set up a challenge to
all old
ways of thinking about the world and the universe which the future will have to
heed.
Cajori's book is recommended principally because it gives a sense of that
inevitable
drawing together of scientific method and social thought which forms the basic
conviction of Technocracy and will prove its final justification as a fertile
approach to
the problems of society considered as a functioning organism.

Mott-Smith, Morton: This Mechanical World; an introduction to popular physics. New

York, D. Appleton & Co., 1931; xvi, 233 pages, illus., bibl; New World of Science
Series, ed. by Watson Davis.
If, as Technocracy has indicated in no uncertain terms, modern society is becoming
more
and more a dynamic phenomena, an understanding of the principles of dynamics might
well be given the right of way over the a priori speculations of traditional
economics and
sociology. Mott- Smith's volume is admirably suited to provide the intelligent,
non-
technical reader with a background in this great branch of the physical sciences.

Believing that 'it is important for our security and progress to know and
understand the
physical environment in which we live,' Professor Mott-Smith loses no time in
getting at
the heart of his subject. Hydrostatics, inertia, force, acceleration; the laws of
motion and
gravitation; mass, weight, and momentum; the conservation of energy and the forms
of
energy; old beliefs and modern theories of physical phenomena-these are a few of
the
things discussed, with adequate references to the great pioneers from Archimedes
through Galileo to, Newton, Maxwell and Ernst Mach. The reader is made to realize
the
importance of clear ideas and exact measurement in dealing with natural phenomena,
and the frequent use of homely examples, such as the lever, inclined plane,
pulleys, and
projectiles, help to drive home the basic concepts of dynamics � particularly those

which show the inseparable relationship between energy expended and work
accomplished. From the viewpoint of Technocracy, this popular exposition of
mechanics
is commendable not only for the skill shown in presenting difficult material, but
because
this material, properly assimilated, will give the layman a keener appreciation of
the
impersonal forces underlying even the last stronghold of human values-society.

Cannon, Walter B.: The Wisdom of the Body; New York, W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.,
1932; xv, 312 pages, diagrams, bibl.

Recommended by Technocracy because it is one of the few recent books which describe

that primitive biological prime mover, Man, in the terms and with the special
objective
methods of science. The author, Dr. Cannon, is not only one of America's foremost
living physiologists who has been widely honored here and abroad, but is also a
very
gifted expositor of his specialty. In this volume, intended for the layman, he
reveals the
human body as a mechanism of extraordinary complexity and adaptability: with each
of
the major functions � respiratory, digestive, circulatory and reproductive � there
are
associated others that express themselves in determinate ways, and in entire
accordance
with the principle of the conservation of energy. The outcome of all this largely
automatic internal activity is the attainment and maintenance of what Professor
Cannon
calls 'homeo-stasis' and which he defines as 'the coordinated physiological
processes
which maintain most of the steady states in the organism' � that is to say, which
insure
the proper stability against environmental and physiological disturbances. The use
of the
expression 'steady states' is peculiarly appropriate, for it is one of the terms
widely used
in thermodynamics and is employed also by Technocracy to describe those social
structures in which that highly stabilized engine, Man, was the principal engine of

energy conversion. Professor Cannon, in a suggestive final chapter, attempts a

parallel
between physiological and 'social' homeo-stasis which should not be taken too
seriously:
he does, however, recognize that stability results from an even flow of the
materials of
the organism. This is a shrewd approach to the view of Technocracy; that smooth
social
operation depends solely upon the rates of flow of the available physical energy as

converted into use-forms and services.

Petrie, Flinders: Social Life in Ancient Egypt; London, Constable & Co., Ltd.,
reissue,
1932; viii, 210 pages.

Sir Flinders Petrie needs no introduction to those with any interest in, or
knowledge of,
archaeology or the history of human cultures. To a thoroughgoing scholarship and
extensive field experience he adds what, from the point of view of Technocracy, is
of
supreme importance to all engaged in historical research: keen appreciation of the
natural factors on which all human societies depend, and by which alone they can
function adequately. It is for this reason that his small but remarkably well-
informed
volume on Egyptian social life is included here: in six chapters we are given a
picture of
an ancient society as it actually worked under the special conditions imposed by
nature.
We see the framework of this society, bounded by king, priest, warrior and slave;
the
conditions of labor are set forth, and authentic details regarding such colossal
achievements as the Pyramids enable us to realize both the pathos and the terrific
efficiency of the institution of human slavery � that historic progenitor of
technology
and the machine. The administration of Egypt and the intricacies of court life;
existence
in town and country; legal, political and social customs (many of them suggestively

'modern'); and, particularly to be noticed, very full accounts of commerce,

manufacturers and trades, primitive industries; weights and measures; construction
and
national defense. In effect, what Sir Flinders Petrie has done in 200 compact pages
is to
give us one of the most instructive accounts we know on ancient society as a
functioning
organism rather than as a static repetition of dynastic and political changes on
the level
of nationalist chicanery. One reason for this stimulating dynamic attitude may be
found
in these words taken from the opening chapter: 'It is not too much to say that the
discoverer is the maker of society. Every step of discovery or invention reacts on
the
structure of social relations. We can see this around us today; .... the present
use of
electric power and of the internal combustion engine for motors, will entirely
alter the
relation of town and country.' To this extent at least, Technocracy gladly
acknowledges
Sir Flinders Petrie as a worthy ally.

Voskuil, Walter A.: Minerals in Modern Industry; Philadelphia, John Wiley & Sons,
1930; 350 pages.

Technocracy is able to recommend this book as containing one of the most readable
and
concise summaries available of the mineral position of the United States in
relation to
the rest of the world; and also because of the emphasis it lays upon the basic role
played
by minerals in our present industrial social mechanism. The author's occasional
departure from the scientific terms of mass and energy and his discussion of
certain
phases of the question in the non- scientific terms derived from economic theory
(in
particular those centering about 'value' and 'monetary costs') would be much more
objectionable had he not made clear his adherence to a broad social welfare point
of
view. This view has led him to recognize the imperative need for the conservation
and

wise use of mineral resources, thus automatically invalidating his references to

the
traditional Price System methods of evaluating and operating the functional
sequences
of industry. It is to just such paradoxes and contradictions in current thought on
social
problems that Technocracy has consistently been directing public attention.

Leith, C. K.: World Minerals and World Politics; New York, Whittlesey House
(McGraw-Hill Co.), 1 93 1 ; 1 93 pages.

Professor Leith is the head of the Geology Department of the University of

Wisconsin
and one of the leading authorities on world mineral resources. He is also a wealthy

owner of iron interests. This dual position of the author is faithfully reflected
in his
book. Technocracy regrets that it can unreservedly recommend only those chapters
dealing with Professor Leith's proper scientific domain: world minerals. In these
he
discusses, with the skill and competence possible only to one thoroughly familiar
with
the subject, the geographical areas of the earth with regard to minerals,
emphasizing the
close interdependence of these areas, their various strong points and weaknesses.
Here
he almost recognizes some of the conclusions long held by Technocracy: that actual
wealth is the degradation of available energy into socially desirable use-forms and

services, and is thus measurable only in the quantitative units derived from the
physical
sciences. The chapters on world politics in relation to minerals, however, appear
to have
been written by the author in his capacity as owner of large iron interests, for in
them he
relaxes in scientific detachment, attempting to elucidate ways and means for the
further
exploitation of mineral resources according to the still accepted canons of the
Price
System and of that 'absentee ownership' so shrewdly analyzed by Thorstein Veblen.
Technocracy therefore discards these chapters as having no relevance to the subject
in
hand, and as being inspired by an attitude with which it has nothing in common.

Usher, Abbott Payson: A History of Mechanical Inventions; New York, McGraw-Hill

Book Co., 1929; 390 pages, illus., bibl.

This well-documented and generously illustrated volume is of major importance to

those
who wish to acquire a correct insight into the technological factors of modern
life.
Disregarding the somewhat loose psychological speculations on the. nature of
invention
in general (Particularly the references to the 'Gestalt theory' of human behavior)
the
reader may concentrate his interest in the fascinating story that begins with the
'eolipile'
steam toy of Hero and comes down to the internal combustion engine of the modern
motor car and aeroplane. Despite the steady efforts of man to eliminate toil
through
mechanical aids, and the support of a growing body of exact scientific knowledge
(here
again Galileo scored many triumphs), the actual saving in human labor was
negligible
until James Watt inaugurated the Age of Power by his improved steam engine about
the
time of America's Declaration of Independence. Professor Usher is particularly full
in
his discussions of water wheels and wind mills, clocks and watches; the invention
of

printing; textile machinery; and he has an unusually valuable chapter on the

mechanical
genius of that great forerunner of modern technology, Leonardo da Vinci. Other
chapters
on machine tools, quantity production, and power complete a volume which
Technocracy can thoroughly recommend for the clear understanding it will give
intelligent readers of the slow progression of man through the centuries of toil to
the
rapidly accelerating Epoch of Power. Professor Usher's general point of view is
well
stated in the following sentence: 'The technological sciences furnish the account
of the
most important single factor in the active transformation of the environment by
human
activity' � provided that by 'human activity' we understand, not labor in the sense

intended by Adam Smith or even the Physiocrats on whom he drew so generously, but
'exploitation by man of extraneous physical energies converted to his use through
technological means.'

Soddy, Frederick: Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt, the Solution of the Economic
Paradox; New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1926; 320 pages.

This, the only volume in the group dealing in any specific way with the subject of
economics is included because the author is primarily a scientist of notable
achievements in the field of physics. Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, discoverer
of
isotopes, collaborator with Lord Rutherford in pioneer researches on atomic
structure
and radio-activity, Professor Soddy attempts here a very interesting thing: the
reduction
of economics to quantitative methods of analysis. In view of the hasty charge of
plagiarism brought against Technocracy in connection with this book, it is
desirable to
point out: first, that Soddy's earlier chapters (up to the sixth) give a valuable
account of
the social implications of modern science, particularly in the fields of
thermodynamics
and energy-exchanges; second, that the necessity for interpreting social forces in
terms
of dynamic physical forces susceptible to measurement and control, is very
pressing;
third, that through inability, or unwillingness to follow these vital premises
through,
Soddy still maintains the traditional view of 'wealth' as bearing some functional
relation
to the 'value medium' of money rather than � as is basic to Technocracy � to
quantitative units derived from the conversion of available physical energy into
use-
forms and services. This peculiar confusion of thought is reminiscent of Tycho
Brahe's
ingenious effort to reconcile the exploded Ptolemaic cosmogony with the
Copernician,
or of Joseph Priestley's last ditch defense of the 'Phlogiston theory' his own
experiments
did so much to discredit. For this reason Technocracy, however appreciative of
Professor
Soddy's valiant and suggestive attempt to recast economics in a scientific form,
must
qualify its recommendation of this volume by a warning which may be thus
generalized:
Economic theory, as it has come down to us from 'yesterday's seven thousand static
years,' can neither be reconciled with, nor recast by, these methods of the
physical
sciences now functionally dominant in our modern industrial mechanisms: it must be
discarded.
OTHER SCIENTIFIC, STATISTICAL, AND HISTORICAL REFERENCE

BOOKS

The books herein listed are intended primarily to be read by Technocrats in

conjunction
with the Technocracy Study Course which points out the social implications of the
physical factors and laws described. The books are on two separate levels of
technicality
� elementary, and advanced. Those on the elementary level may be read by people not

already familiar with mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Those on the advanced
level
are primarily for technically trained people who have a moderately advanced
knowledge
of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. In no case have cheap popularizations been
included, and in all cases the books presented are among the best that exist in the

English language. As better books become available this bibliography will be

changed
so as to include them.

Matter and Energy

(Elementary)

MOTT- SMITH, MORTON:

Heat and Its Workings, pp. 239, D. Appleton-Century Co., New York, 1933. -$2.00.
The Story of Energy, pp. 305, D. Appleton-Century Co., New York, 1934. -$2.00.

ANDRADE, E. N. DAC:

An Hour of Physics, pp. 170, J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1930. -$1.00.

FINDLAY, ALEXANDER:

The Spirit of Chemistry, pp. 510, Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1934. - $4.00.
GUYE, CH. EUG.:

Physico-Chemical Evolution, pp. 172, E. R Dutton & Co., New York, 1926. -$2.40. The

second essay (pp. 30-117) especially recommended.

(Advanced)

GRIMSEHL, E.:

A Textbook of Physics; Vol. I, Mechanics, pp. 433, Blackie & Son Ltd., London,
1932.
Vol. 11, Heat and Sound, pp. 312, Blackie & Son Ltd., London and Glasgow, 1933.

PLANCK, MAX:

Treatise on Thermodynamics, 3rd edition, pp. 297, Longmans, Green & Co., London,
1927.
ENERNST, WALTER:

Theoretical Chemistry, From the Standpoint of Avogadro's Rule & Thermodynamics, pp.

922, Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London, 1923.

The Earth

(Elementary)

BRANSON, E. B. and TARR, W. A.:

Introduction to Geology, pp. 470, McGraw-Hill, New York, N. Y., 1935.

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL BULLETIN 79:

Physics of the Earth, (Meteorology, Part III), pp. 289, 193 1.

CLARKE, F. W.:

Data of Geochemistry, pp. 841, U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 770, 1927. -$1.00.
SCHUCHERT, CHARLES and DUNBAR, CARL O.:

Outlines of Historical Geology, 3rd Edition, pp. 241, John Wiley & Sons, New York,
1937.

ROMER, ALFRED S.;

Man and the Vertebrates, pp. 427, University of Chicago Press, 1933.

Organisms
(Elementary)

NEWBURGH, L. H. and JOHNSTON, MARGUERITE W.:

The Exchange of Energy Between Man and His Environment, pp. 104, Charles C.
Thomas, Springfield, 111., 1930. $2.00.

HILL,A.V.:

Living Machinery, pp. 256, Harcourt Brace & Co., New York, 1933.
ALLEE, W. C:

Animal Life and Social Growth, pp. 160, Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, Md.,
1932.
-$1.00.

PEARL, RAYMOND:

The Biology of Population Growth, pp. 288, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1930. -$4.50.

DARWIN, CHARLES:

Origin of Species, pp. 557, Macmillan Co., New York, 1927.

THOMPSON, W. S. and WHELPTON, P. K.:

Population Trends in the United States, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1933. -$4.00

(Advanced)

SPOHR, H. A.:

Photosynthesis, pp. 393, Chemical Catalogue Co., New York, 1926.

LUSK, WILLIAM GRAHAM:

The Science of Nutrition, pp. 844, W B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1928. -$7.00.
LOTKA, ALFRED J.:

Elements of Physical Biology, pp. 460, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, Md., 1925. -
$2.50

The Rise of the Human Species

RICKAIM, T. A.:

Man and Metals, pp. 1061, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1932. -$10.00.
HARVEY-GIBSON, R. J.:

Two Thousand Years of Science, pp. 346, A. R C. Black, Ltd., London, 1929.
HODGINS, ERIC, and MAGOUN, F. A.:

Behemoth, the Story of Power, pp. 354, Doubleday-Doran & Co., New York, 1932. -
$2.50.

Resources

TRYON, F. G. and ECKEL, E. C:

Mineral Economics, pp. 311, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1932. -$2.50.

U.S. BUREAU OF MINES, (Foreign Minerals Division):

Mineral Raw Materials, pp. 342, McGraw-Hill, New York. -$5.00.

WILLCOX, 0. W.:

Reshaping Agriculture, pp. 157, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1934. -$2.00.

ABC of Agrobiology, pp. 317, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1937. -$2.75.

Price System Rules of the Game

WOODWARD, D. B. and ROSE, M. A.:

A Primer of Money, pp. 322, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1935. -$2.50.

FOSTER, W. T. and CATCHINGS, WADDILL:

Profits, pp. 465, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1925. -$2.00.

VEBLEN, THORSTEIN:

The Theory of the Leisure Class, pp. 400, The Vanguard Press, New York, 1932. -
$.75.
The Theory of Business Enterprise, pp. 400, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York,
1936. -
$2.00.

The Engineers and the Price System, The Viking Press, New York, 1936. -$1.50.
FLYNN, JOHN T.:

Security Speculation, pp. 319, Harcourt Brace Co., New York, 1934. -$3.00.
Recommended except last chapters where a synthesis is attempted.

HENDERSON, FRED:

The Economic Consequences of Power Production, pp. 220, Reynal and Hitchcock Inc.,
New York, 1933. -$2.00.

MYER, GUSTAVUS:

History of Great American Fortunes, pp. 730, Modern Library, New York, 1937. -
$1.25.
JOSEPHSON, MATHEW:

The Robber Barons, pp. 453, Harcourt Brace & Co., New York, 1934. -$1.49.

Arms and the Man, a pamphlet reprint from Fortune, March, 1934, Doubleday-Doran &

Co., New York. -$.10.

The Nature of the Human Animal

SUMNER, W. G.:

Folkways, pp. 692, Ginn and Co., New York, 1933. $5.00.
PAVLOV, IVAN:

Conditioned Reflexes, pp. 430, Oxford University Press, New York, 1927. $8.50.
ALLEN,EDGAR:

Sex and the Internal Secretions, pp.951, Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1932.
$10.00.

CANNON, WALTER B.:

Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage, pp. 404, D. Appleton & Co., New
York, 1929.

STATISTICAL DATA

� Statistical Abstract of the U. S., (issued annually).

� U.S. Minerals Yearbook, U. S. Bureau of Mines.

� U. S. Yearbook of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture.

� U.S. Commerce Yearbook, Department of Commerce.

� Statistics of Railways in the U, S., Interstate Commerce Commission (issued
monthly).

� Monthly Labor Review, Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (issued

monthly).

� Bulletin of the Federal Reserve Board (issued monthly).

� Bulletins of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (issued periodically).

� Statistics of Income, U. S. Treasury Department (issued annually).

� Technological Trends and National Policy, National Resources Committee, June,

1937, House Document No. 360.

� All of the United States Government Publications may be obtained from the
Superintendent of Documents, United States Government Printing Office,
Washington, D. C.

� Canada Year Book, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa, Ontario. (A wide

selection of other statistical material regarding Canada may be obtained from the
same source).

PAMPHLETS ON TECHNOCRACY

� Science vs Chaos, by Howard Scott - 10 cents

� America Must Show the Way - 10 cents

� The Mystery of Money - 10 cents

� The Energy Certificate - 10 cents

� Technocracy in Plain Terms - 5 cents

The foregoing list is subject to change as new pamphlets are added. A catalogue
will be
mailed upon written request. In addition to these pamphlets a wide selection of
free
literature is available to those who request information on Technocracy.

A NOTE ON THE WORK OF THORSTEIN VEBLEN

There has been much discussion concerning the origin of the body of ideas for which
the
term Technocracy now stands. Speculation concerning this point has focused
attention
upon the work of Thorstein Veblen as the source of inspiration, with particular
reference
to the Engineers and the Price System as the animating force. Such conclusions are
quite
contrary to the facts.
Shortly after the close of the World War, Scott was introduced to Veblen by a
mutual
acquaintance who recognized,that the two men had come to quite similar conclusions
concerning the operation of the social mechanism -- Scott by way of physical
science
and Veblen by hacking his way through the preconceptions of economics. In the
Engineers and the Price System which was written after contact with Scott, Veblen
indulges in extrapolations that are at wide variance with the work since
accomplished by
Technocracy.

Veblen's position at that time is expressed in his published works such as The
Theory of
Business Enterprise, The Instinct of Workmanship, The Place of Science in Modern
Civilization, Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution. Scott was not at that
time
acquainted with the works of Veblen and although Scott's published statements are
of a
later date,, to those who knew both, during the years immediately following the War

when Technocracy was organized, there can be no question as to the complete

independence of the two men and their theories. You cannot state Scott's theory in
terms
of Veblenian formulations, nor can you express Veblen's economic theory in terms of

Scott's theory of energy determinants.

Veblen was working at that time under the point of view expressed in his note Why
is
Economics not an Evolutionary Science which is found in The Place of Science in
Modern Civilization. Scott approached his work under the theories of physical
science.
It was this approach by way of physical science to the problems of explaining and
operating the social mechanism that enabled him to take the next all important
step: the
substituting of a metrical for the prevailing 'value' interpretation of the social
mechanism. In this manner, he was able to reduce such generalized concepts as the
accelerating productivity of the state of the industrial arts' to quantitative
terms with
which physical science and technology could deal.

In their treatment of 'price' (Veblen in The Theory of Business Enterprise and

Scott in
Part III of this book) and its bearing upon the productivity of the industrial
system it is
difficult to distinguish between the two points of view. To both, 'price' is an
independent
variable that intrudes and, through its controls, serves to throw the system out of

balance. Nor is there any important distinction to be drawn from their handling of
debt.

The body of ideas for which Technocracy acts as spokesman is seemingly foreshadowed

in the recent drift of modern common sense as it has gradually taken form under the
impact of physical science and technology. Veblen was caught in that drift and he
gave it
both acceleration and direction. Scott likewise was caught in it; but being free of
the
preconceptions of economics, he was able to turn his knowledge of physical science
to
bear directly upon the problems of the physical operations of a social mechanism
that
had already passed under the dominating control of science and technology.