Technocracy and Mediocracy

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC INSANITY! ARE WE SANE ENOUGH TO FIND REALITY?

The American Psychiatric Association defines the meaning of the word INSANITY, as senselessly holding any belief, opinion or system that is not supported by FACT and not knowing the differences between fantasy and reality. If we agree to accept the APA's definitive meaning of the word, then what does our knowledge of 'insanity' signify to us as it relates to our belief based, political and economic institutions? Are those of us who uphold these mythical traditions, insane?

And if we are not insane and we continue to hold the support of any political-price system economy, then how can we reasonably justify our collective willingness to continuously dupe ourselves into believing that our individual net worth, and the quality of our lives, must only be determined by the opinions of politicians, economists, and the amount of faith based money that they allow us to have?

What if an election were held and no one showed up to vote, and what if we lost faith in the value of money and it became worthless? Might we all be better off without money and politics? Imagine every citizen of the world willfully ignoring all political and economic systems that are designed to swindle us out of our natural reality of abundance.

All political and economic price systems are based in a fantasy land of easily repudiated beliefs, opinions and or myths. They are set up to create ideological and psychological divisions between various groups of people through our collective willingness to believe in fairy tales.

In the real world, the vast majority of us will never be represented by a politician or price system economist, unless we can somehow find a way to buy our own piece of the mythically controlled political world government. And that is becoming increasingly more difficult as the worlds faith based money supply is consolidated into fewer hands; and jobs continue to leave our shores, are replaced by automation, or are lost all together as a result of the many problems associated with the reality of Peak World Oil Production, and the corresponding increases in the price of operating economically viable businesses.

Hasn't history shown us time and time again that politicians cannot and will never be a part of any real and lasting solutions to our most complex social, energy and environmental problems? These problems will only be solved through the functional utilization of reality based technology by Artists, Engineers, Scientists and Technical Experts without any kind of political price system interference.

Most all military wars are an example and the result of our belief in the divisive myth of money and politics. Money based politicians are representatives of their own private international wonderland, their job is to sell us ideologies that support their own special interests by using our own gullibility against us, as we passionately or passively agree to pay for their profit making wars and businesses with our blood, sweat and tax dollars.

The vast majority of people surrender our personal freedoms every day of our lives and submit to a political world government that can rightly be called a 'Fascist Totalitarian Plutocracy,' a system which symbolically represents our collective willingness to be controlled and dictated to by one party, an authoritarian multinational government by the rich, that is opposed to democracy! No true democracy is possible until we decide to ignore all political rhetoric and enter into the known FACT BASED REALITY of FREE, clean, and abundant energy systems that are and will be designed and engineered for the benefit of ALL.

A change in systems will occur when finite resources are exhausted beyond the point where they can no longer be used to prop up Alice's Economic Wonderland, or when the worlds citizens finally realize that any and all polities that use price system economics as the basis for their decision making; whether they are called capitalism-imperialism, socialism-communism, republican or democrat, liberal, and or conservative etc; are nothing more than an elaborate hoax, fabricated to serve, protect, and expand the exclusive interests of a 'self proclaimed' elite wealthy class at the great expense to all of our lives.

We the people of the world, will become free from the bondage of all price system dictatorships, only when the physical products and services that we all require to sustain our lives are abundantly accessible to each and every citizen and FREE from all subjective interpretations of value.

THE SANITY OF REAL SOLUTIONS ARE ALREADY HERE!

FACT- We have the technology to produce and distribute an abundance of goods and services FREELY to each and every citizen. We have a chance to clean up the environment and the waste that the political-economic price system automatically spawns as we begin to creatively utilize optimum technologies for the benefit of all citizens, whilst assuring a viable future for generations yet unborn.

I strongly encourage everyone who cares about our future, to consider Technocracy, as the only viable alternative to the insanity of any belief based political and economic institution. Technocracy simply means; A GOVERNMENT OF FUNCTION and skill by Artists, Engineers, Scientists and Technical Experts who base their problem solving decisions firmly on the FACTS as we know and observe them in nature.

If it is physically impossible to sustain an ever expanding price system economy in a finite world, then would it not be wise for us to look beyond our scarcity determined values, and begin to balance the abundance of what we already know for the betterment of everyone everywhere, equitably and without prejudice?

Beyond the myth of money and it's politics, is reality and REALITY is where we will find our sanity for solving our most complex problems.

For more FREE information about the proposed Energy Accounting System for North America and The Energy Distribution Card, go to www.technocracyinc.org or you can make a request, by sending a letter to Technocracy Inc. 2475 Harksell Road Ferndale, WA 98248-9764

Sincerely,

Robert F. Ahmann U.S.A. 12-01-06

Thanks for the sanity, Robert

I think Roberts onto something here...

Well Robert - on further consideration of your comment, I hope you don't mind if we publish it as an article on New Illuminati? Thanks for your time and erudition R. Ayana

I like your site. So tell me how you became interested in the Technocracy concept...

Thanks Robert, I read your underground mathematical revision of "Equilllibrium" John Nash's Nobel Peace Prize winning work.... as I translated it into the English language, the simplicity of your Technocratic concept becomes evident.

• As you say the, the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what's best for themselves, ALL groups, and ALL the natural world through the governing dynamics of free energy systems.

Natures equillibrium is indeed demonstrated through the governing dynamics of FREE ENERGY systems. And so here we are in a world where the only common denominator of all goods and services is ENERGY, enslaving ourselves to paying a price for ENERGY is what has thrown nature out of balance. As you say, FREE ENERGY will mean, FREE PEOPLE in harmonious balance with nature.... BRAVO.....

Yes,yes,yes!!! Think about it, a free energy based society!!!! If everyone were guaranteed an abundance of what we required to sustain our lives, there would be no psychological need to commit crimes against man or nature, there would simply be no need to hoard, or be greedy, no need to create the illusion of scarcity of resources in order to perpetuate the value of a make believe dollar, etc...

A reality based, free energy society, is the solution to any and or all of our most complex problems.

Is there more than enough for everyone, yes, there is, now all we have to do, is manage our resources intelligently, as Robert says, for "The Betterment of ALL"

Imagine, no more planned and or engineered wastage of the products we consume , no more wars for profits, 98% of all crimes related to the make believe concept of money are eliminated, jobs that are unnecessary are gone baby gone, freeing us up to utilize our great potential as we truly begin to do what we love, in balance with nature...

Yes, we can measure the most effective energy efficient ways to solve reality based problems, but we cannot do it under the current INSANE system that values the opinions of political kings and word magicians over our knowledge of how the physical laws of nature can be used for the benefit of everyone.....

Robert is right, we need to get sane and ignore the propaganda, as we work together to create a better world without prejudice....

PA wrote- What would motivate people to work if money became worthless?

Think about it, roughly 98% of all jobs today are unnecessary, in other words, all of these wasteful jobs have nothing to do whatsoever with the direct operation of the production and distribution system, a system that we all depend on to provide us with the essentials that we rely on to sustain our lives.

The production and distribution system will operate up to optimum functioning capacity ONLY without any form of political and or price system interference.

The new motivating factor for all the engineers, artists, scientists and technical experts will be the genuine desire to do good. The incentive will be the LOVE one has for ones ability to contribute to the betterment of the whole. .

If money became worthless, people would still do what they love, engineers would still think of ways of designing the most measurably effective hydrology system, teachers would continue to teach, farmers would continue to farm etc... And they would do it because they authentically LOVE their work. And the people who typically do most what they love, are almost always the best at what they do.

Money has never really been the best, genuine measure of ones intelligence, love and or ability to perform.

I actually met Mr John Nash in NYC around 1992, before I really new who he was, before he won the Nobel Prize for his 'Equilibrium' that he worked on back in the 40's, he is an interesting guy, he got me thinking in a strange sort of way, it was like he opened a channel in my brain, he is quite the eccentric, we talked a lot about Chaos theory and I argued with him, and I said didn't think that there was such a thing as Chaos simply because every reaction in the known physical universe is preceded by a well ordered sequence of actions and knowing and or discovering what these actions are is the key to solving our most complex social, energy and environmental problems.

Anyway I watched the film, "A Beautiful Mind" in 1997 - or 1998 thereabouts, and there was a part in the film where Nash is sitting in a bar with his fellow students, saying how Adam Smith needed revision, because the best result comes by everyone doing what's best for themselves and the group, again I found this true life story to be something worth arguing against, and then , I simply thought, hey man, John Nash needs revision, because the Best result comes by everyone in the group doing what's best for themselves, ALL groups and ALL the natural world through the governing dynamics of FREE ENERGY SYSTEMS. And I proved it through a new mathematical formula, that would have blown all the preceding Peace prizes out of the water, because it would actually result in the REALITY OF PEACE and FREEDOM for ALL if applied in the physical world.... But again, it won't be accepted until people can begin to see the LIGHT of DAY and realize that the current price system is not set up to solve problems but rather to create them, for profit driven reasons. As Chomsky says, "it's all about "Profit Over People".

Thanks to Robert et al... When I was young, I wanted to be an unclear physicist, Robert. Then I grew up. Now I live in a remote century old, two room wooden shack in a rainforest. Technologies - the solutions they provide and problems they create - are a hallmark of humankind. According to many of those who appear to be technologically and scientifically literate, humans would be reasonable, happy and social beings if they were treated reasonably, instead of being coerced and enslaved to create profits for short-sighted control freaks. This is a reasonable view, although it would be equally reasonable for those with multifarious experiences (in the 'real' world outside academia) to point out that many humans are far too fundamentally damaged to ever be reasonable; regardless of how egalitarian societies may be, or of the level of equality of opportunity, there will always be inveterate losers and congenital winners - just as there will always be those inveterate Luddites who prefer nature's vicissitudes over the comforts of civilization. There will always be mindless destroyers and equally reactive and insecure control freaks who aim to sit athwart the summit of the hominid totem pole. Certainly, Nash's insights show us ways to appreciate the imperatives within which all conscious beings dwell. Doubtless we can consciously steer our way into the new millennium to create something far closer to paradise on Earth for all - far more perfectly, fairly and cogently than any civilization which has hitherto existed. Nonetheless, it's unwise to underestimate the gross stupidity and jealousy of many (remembering that up to fifty percent of the population is always 'below average') or the intrinsically human-hating natures of warrior and religion-based societies (like most of the cultures in which we, the slowly expanding base of change agents are embedded). It's also wise to consider that we may only have a narrow window in time through which to explore these mundanity-transcending possiblities before martial laws and disasters constrain us once again. A clear mind is not enough - and isn't actually possible to maintain without compassion. Thus it behoves me to point out that technological solutions are only as good as the beings that create, maintain and inhabit them, regardless of their superiority in terms of efficiency. Are you familiar with the Venus project? see http://www.thevenusproject.com/ And thanks for all your ongoing interest in a MEANINGFUL LIFE.

Very well stated, thanks for your kind and considerate reply, I will take it under advisement. I always thought that the conditions of the cage are what determine the behavior of the monkey's inside of it.

Technology in and of itself is not the problem, but rather the conditions that technology is made to operate under.

Technology operating in a scarcity determined commodity valuations system is madness, and we see the evidence of this madness all around us in the form of waste, environmental degradation etc.....

Human nature is fine the way it is, we just need a new system that is in balance with our technological know how, the money system is simply not up to being a functional medium of distribution for the betterment of ALL in our natural state of abundance of which technology has helped us produce.

I would love to read more of your story, takes a lot of courage to break free from the traditional rat race and live as best as we can in balance with nature.

I would also like to read what you know about the findings of the Technical Alliance.

I was kind of the opposite of you, I flunked out of school, and am mostly self-educated.

The Venus Project? Jaque Fresco has his own agenda, much of it based on biased opinions and beliefs. Now there is nothing wrong with entertaining ourselves with beliefs, some of these beliefs are quite imaginative. It's just not what Technocracy is about. Technocracy is defined as a government of skill, and function by artists, engineers and technical experts whose goals are to simply measure the most energy efficient ways to operate the production and distribution system without any form of monetary-political interference elements.

Technocracy the think tank, is a non-political, non-sectarian, educational research organization.

Think beyond the media, private and or state owned lands, think beyond the myth of money and politics.

Realize that roughly 90-95% of ALL crimes against man and nature are somehow related to the myth of MONEY and if money could be eliminated technology could be properly used for the betterment of everyone, through FREE ENERGY SYSTEMS!

Will there still be problems under a Technocracy, yes of course, we still would have 5-10% of all remaining crimes which are pathological by nature, but again most every other crime would simply cease to exist.

In nature we don't see monkeys fighting over bananas when there are enough bananas for every monkey, or ducks fighting over bread when there is enough bread for every duck. Likewise if we would simply produce and distribute more than enough for EVERYONE then we wouldn't have the corruption of which you do so well to write about.

PEACE

In a price-money system, there are always going to be a few winners and a vast majority of losers, and who in their right minds would choose to be a loser, and that sets the stage for immediate conflict, and wherever or whenever there is conflict there will NEVER be lasting PEACE.

Technocracy=FREE ENERGY, a system where EVERYONE WINS!!!!!!! And PEACE is ours as a right of birth.

These "short sighted control freaks" that you talk about are not necessarily bad people, the rich have simply inherited a system that benefits them, or they have simply learned to capitalize within the framework of an INSANE price-money system.

Hey, we all reward the rich for atrocities committed against man and nature, because we have ALL socially agreed to determine our NET WORTH as people by the amount of faith based money that we have. There's no sanity to it, the money system is make believe, wars are created by convincing a gullible public to go to war for an OPINION, where is the sanity in that? There isn't any, people capitalize most by being great snake oil salespeople under this system. You have an entire world intelligence network of pawns that are doing all they can to keep the suckers sucking on the same old beliefs that serve a few at the great expense to ALL, this is INSANE and no one is to blame accept the game itself.

We need a new game called REALITY, a REALITY game that benefits everyone..... Yes, EVERYONE. We certainly have the resources, manpower, technology, etc... To make REALITY a REALITY but we need to know what the hell is going on, what is dividing us??? What is it that is driving people to kill each other, etc... It's the price system. Everyone needs to pay a price and if they don't pay the price for food, they will starve, or if they don't pay their mortgage they'll be homeless, of if they don't pay their electric bill, they will be left in the dark, etc.... Why pay the price when machines produce most of it ALL anyway???Who needs to pay for any God damn thing.. Yes, people should get all they need for nothing.... Why not? lets be FREE in a FREE world and clean up the ego driven power plays that demonstrate the lowest form of intelligence on this our most precious living planet.

We would be wise not to blame the rich for the way things are set up.

You are absolutely right Jon, we should not be blaming anyone for the problems we are faced with. The rewards system is broken.

Indeed, the reward system is broken - but it was DELIBERATELY broken by those who profit from maintaining it in that form. The cage determines the shape of its occupant, but is also designed for that occupant. Inheritance is no excuse for perpetuating hypocrisy. The money myth is carefully maintained by everyone in the global pyramid scam we take for an 'economy'. PS - I rejected all the garbage I was being taught in the very best schools in the notional nation where I landed as a baby. Everything we were being taught was epiphenomenal - nothing we were taight was seminal, cogent, revolutionary, interesting or enlightening, much as today. Now I live in a rainforest, way off the grid, and have to travel many miles and pay a premium to access the net - some of this life is documented at http://hermetic.blog.com Live long and prosper, fellow terranauts! If you create -and actually LIVE in - parallel systems to the dominant paradigm it may even wither on the vine. Turn On, Tune In, Opt Out! see also http://newilluminati.blog-city.com/ring_wood_charter__living_agreements.htm

Well, this is certainly an interesting conversation. The worlds economic system is destroying itself, and yes, it was designed that way.

Cecil Rhodes and his vision of world socialist control is being actualized. We are in the process of creating total reliance on the world state for our collective survival, with only a few self proclaimed elite running the show. America is being dragged down into the muck of mediocrity along with the rest of the world.... But, this new world order doesn't seem like it will work for very long, does it?

Technocracy, is and has been the best alternative to the money system since around 1913 in North America, Technocracy truly is a fact oriented system based on our knowledge of the physical laws of nature, as we simply use this knowledge for measuring the most effective ways to solve problems, without media, political, and or financial considerations.

The problem with Technocracy is that it does not apply to most of the world, or does it? How does Technocracy propose to solve the problem of abundantly distributing all the life sustaining products we consume in areas of the world where resources are scarce, and populations are greatest in number?

It seems that a Technocratic balance would automatically and naturally take care of the worlds population problem. How would this work?

Perhaps a relevant question here is 'who guards the guardians' or 'who watches the watchers'? See for instance - http://newilluminati.blog-city.com/who_watches_the_watchers.htm Can we trust any technocracy (or other system of governance) without real democracy?

Which monkeys will watch and corrupt a system that is based not on scarcity but rather on a natural state of abundance of everything that the monkeys require for survival?

Again, statistically, 95% of most every crime is money related, or scarcity related, and remember the money system must create scarcity in order to create value, which automatically creates a system where everything is watched....

Free and abundant energy systems are the key to solving population problems, education problems, health problems, environmental problems, etc... And is the only certain way to bring us ALL back into equilibrium!

Politics- is our natural approach to matters that we don't understand!

Techocracy- is our collective knowledge that we can choose to use for solving our most complex physical problems, naturally!

Wasn't M. King Hubbert JFK's Top energy advisor, I mean he was the head of the US Geological Survey wasn't he? M. King Hubbert was head of Technocracy inc, hmmm he was a pretty bright guy, who wrote a report titled ENERGY RESOURCES; Report to the Committee on Natural Resources 1962, he wrote this report after JFK requested it, and the results and or findings from that report, led JFK and company to find ways to install a "Steady State Economy" interesting how the think tank Technocracy might play into all this, including the reason why JFK was killed and no alternative system has been attempted since that day in 1963.

Technocracy is REAL democracy, technocrats simply find out what people want and they go out and produce it for them abundantly!!!! Yes, Technocracy is already here man, and so is the idea of democracy, but ask yourself, what the hell is interfering with the EXISTING Technates optimum functioning capacity? Well, what can it be? It's our collective willingness to believe in the myth of MONEY and politics, yes the PRICE SYSTEM is the problem here.....

Why do you suppose they are not placing a price on the air you breathe, in your beautiful environment? Well, what can it be? Because it's abundant and we can only create VALUE and hence PRICE on things we can make scarce. Technocracy proposes to FREE UP ENERGY through sources like the SUN, WIND, and WATER, these abundant ENERGY resources if fully utilized would automatically eliminate the idea of a scarcity determined commodity valuations system from our reality, and FREE US UP as HUMANS as we solve the problems that the price system creates. Again, Technocracy is a non-profit, Non-political, Non sectarian, educational, research organization, committed to discovering ways how REALITY can FREE US UP, and bring us ALL back into equilibrium in our natural world.

It's the only damn system that makes any sense, and is based entirely on FACTS. A FACT is = A close agreement of a series of observations of the same phenomena!!!!

All else is OPINION and therefore easily repudiated. Now lets base our ACTIONS as they relate to PRODUCTION and DISTRIBUTION system on the FACTS. and leave the politicians and money acrobats to entertain us with Howdy Doody.....

A brilliant dialog... aye, Robert, the money myth creates a continuous downward spiral, and free energy - and information - are the keys to ongoing abundance. The modern world may well be a technocracy, yet (in)vested interests remain another brake - aside from inherently inflationary monetarism - on our natural progression toward a humankind unfettered by ingrained fear and mistrust. Technological fixes are not the motive for finding creative solutions - all creative, non-reactionary incentives are located in a more subtle plenum of human consciousness and activity. Compassion and awareness are the hallmarks of our deeper selves communing through these surface substrates. The universe and mind are holographic in nature and structure. Every one is everyone, intimately and implicately connected, and we are all recovering from a blow to the collective mind; an amnesiac species still emerging from a healing sleep. As such, all our systems are provisional constructs suited to the time and circumstances in which they exist - and the times they are a'changing! Thanks to you all for focusing your thoughts, consciousness, compassion and time on the most fundamental issues of our era.

Education is the key to eliminating these entrenched monetary elements that you do so well to write about, if not education, then the natural laws of nature will bring us all back down to earth. It is after all, physically impossible to sustain an ever expanding price system economy in a finite world.

The universe being holographic in nature? Well yes, at subatomic levels but nevertheless the intelligent energy information is acting according to observable physical laws through cause and effect relationships.

I think it is worth repeating here, (Every re-action is preceded by a well order sequence of ACTIONS in the known physical universe) knowing and discovering what these ACTIONS are, is the key to solving our most complex problems and for ALL of us living on this most beautiful planet earth the ACTION begins at the source, and what is the source, RA? THE SUN, oh, yes, let there be LIGHT to ILLUMINATE our way!!!!

It makes no difference who owns the sun. What concerns us vitally is whether we use it properly or not. No lovers ever quarreled about who owns the moon. Neither does it make any difference who owns the earth if we can discover how to use it. Ownership is a MYTH. If we once get to using our resources and our industrial and transportation systems to their full capacity, nobody will be fool enough to care whether they are owned or not.

Private property is generally recognized as a burden even today, and few people would want to carry it if they could be rich without having to do so. For the first time in history, though, humanity has a machine at hand which is productive enough to make everybody rich, and it has the technical knowledge at it's disposal to run such a machine.

(But do you expect the engineers to agree upon a program? They have prejudices and differences, don't they, just like the rest of us?)

They disagree as politicians, but not as engineers. We are not trying to organize them, however, into a society to debate something, but into an alliance which will discover the facts. They all know which direction a stone will drop. They all know that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. If there is anything else they want to know as engineers, they find out; and when they find out, there isn't the slightest disagreement. Engineers are not radical or conservative. As engineers, they are no more radical than a yardstick and no more conservative than so many degrees Fahrenheit.

Hubbert's Prescription for Survival, A Steady State Economy

Robert L. Hickerson

March 1, 1995

The late Dr. M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist, is well known as a world authority on the estimation of energy resources and on the prediction of their patterns of discovery and depletion.

1. He was probably the best known geophysicist in the world to the general public because of his startling prediction, first made publicly in 1949, that the fossil fuel era would be of very short duration.

Less well known were Hubbert's studies since 1926 on the rate of industrial growth and of mineral and energy resources and their significance in the evolution of the world's present technological civilization. 3 Clark in "Geophysics" in February 1983 states ""In recent years, he (Hubbert) has assaulted a target -- which he labels the culture of money --that is gigantic even by Hubbert standards. His thesis is that society is seriously handicapped because its two most important intellectual underpinnings, the science of matter-energy and the historic system of finance, are incompatible. A reasonable co-existence is possible when both are growing at approximately the same rate. That, Hubbert says, has been happening since the start of the industrial revolution but it is soon going to end because the amount the matter-energy system can grow is limited while money's growth is not.

"I was in New York in the 30's. I had a box seat at the depression," Hubbert says. "I can assure you it was a very educational experience. We shut the country down because of monetary reasons. We had manpower and abundant raw materials. Yet we shut the country down. We're doing the same kind of thing now but with a different material outlook. We are not in the position we were in 1929-30 with regard to the future. Then the physical system was ready to roll. This time it's not. We are in a crisis in the evolution of human society. It's unique to both human and geologic history. It has never happened before and it can't possibly happen again. You can only use oil once. You can only use metals once. Soon all the oil is going to be burned and all the metals mined and scattered." That is obviously a scenario of catastrophe, a possibility Hubbert concedes. But it is not one he forecast. The man known to many as a pessimist is, in this case, quite hopeful. In fact, he could be the ultimate utopian. We have, he says, the necessary technology. All we have to do is completely overhaul our culture and find an alternative to money.

"We are not starting from zero," he emphasizes. "We have an enormous amount of existing technical knowledge. It's just a matter of putting it all together. We still have great flexibility but our maneuverability will diminish with time."

A non-catastrophic solution is impossible, Hubbert feels, unless society is made stable. This means abandoning two axioms of our culture . . . the work ethic and the idea that growth is the normal state of affairs. Hubbert challenges the latter mathematically and concludes the exponential growth of the last two centuries is the opposite of the normal situation.

"It is an aberration. For most of human history the population doubled only once every 32,000 years. Now it's down to 35 years. That is dangerous. No biologic population can double more that a few times without getting seriously out of bounds. I think the world is seriously overpopulated right now. There can be no possible solutions to the world's problems that do not involve stabilization of the world's population."

Hubbert's ideas about work are even more heretical. Work is becoming, he says, increasingly unimportant. He thinks it is conceivable that the future work week might be on the order of 10 hours. Indeed, because production will have to be limited by increasingly limited mineral resources, that might be inevitable. And that, Hubbert stresses, could be the foundation of an earthly paradise.

"Most employment now is merely pushing paper around," he says. "The actual work needed to keep a stable society running is a very small fraction of available manpower."

The key to making this cultural alteration is to come up with a limitless supply of cheap energy. Hubbert feels the answer is obvious--solar power--and he does not feel more technological breakthroughs are needed before it can be made universally available. His faith is not that of a knee-jerk trendy but that of a doubter who did much studying before his conversion.

"Fifteen years ago I thought solar power was impractical because I thought nuclear power was the answer. But I spent some time on an advisory committee on waste disposal to the Atomic Energy Commission. After that, I began to be very, very skeptical because of the hazards. That's when I began to study solar power. I'm convinced we have the technology to handle it right now. We could make the transition in a matter of decades if we begin now.""

On June 4th, 1974 Hubbert testified before Representative Morris K. Udall's Subcommittee on the Environment.3 In his 21 page written statement he presented his familiar lecture on various growth curves, their equations, curves of world and U.S. production of fossil fuels as well as projections for the future. He next discussed the cultural aspects of the growth problem. He states, "during the last two centuries of unbroken industrial growth we have evolved what amounts to an exponential-growth culture. Our institutions, our legal system, our financial system, and our most cherished folkways and beliefs are all based upon the premise of continuing growth, Since physical and biological constraints make it impossible to continue such rates of growth indefinitely, it is inevitable that with the slowing down in the rates of physical growth cultural adjustments must be made.

One example of such cultural difficulty is afforded by the fundamental difference between the properties of money and those of matter and energy upon which the operation of the physical world depends. Money, being a system of accounting, is, in effect, paper and so is not constrained by the laws within which material and energy systems must operate. In fact money grows exponentially by the rule of compound interest." He next derives the equations for the growth of the stock of money, the rate of industrial growth and the generalized price level. The expression for the generalized price level states that this level "should increase exponentially at a rate equal to the difference between the rate of growth of money and that of industrial production. In particular, if the industrial growth rate a and the average interest rate i have the same values, then the ratio of money to what money will buy will remain constant and a stable price level should prevail. Suppose, however, that for physical reasons the industrial growth rate a declines but the interest rate i holds steady. We should then have a situation where i is greater than a with the corresponding price inflation at the rate (i-a). Finally consider a physical growth rate a=0, with the interest rate i greater than zero. In this case, the rate of price inflation should be the same as the average interest rate. Conversely, if prices are to remain stable at reduced rates of industrial growth this would require that the average interest rate should be reduced by the same amount. Finally, the maintenance of a constant price level in a non-growing industrial system implies either an interest rate of zero or continuous inflation.

As a check on the validity of these deductions, consider the curves of U.S. energy and pig-iron production (which he shows in Figures 17 and 18.) Because energy is a common factor in all industrial operation and pig-iron production one of the basic components of heavy industry, the growth in the production of energy and pig iron is a very good indicator of the total industrial production.

Figure 17 is a graph plotted on a semilogarithmic scale of the production of energy from coal, oil, gas, and water power -- from 1850 to 1969. From 1850 to 1907 the production of energy increased exponentially at a rate of 6.91 percent per year, with a doubling period of 10.0 years. Then during the three-year period from 1907 to 1910, the growth rate dropped abruptly to a mean rate of 1.77 percent per year and the doubling period increased to 39 years.

Figure 18 is a corresponding plot of U.S. pig-iron production. The pig-iron curve resembles that of energy so closely that the two curves can hardly be told from one another. Pig-iron production also grew exponentially at a rate close to 7 percent per year until about 1910, when it too broke abruptly to a lower rate of less that 2 percent per year. This abrupt break at about 1910 represents a major event in the industrial history of the United States, yet we have barely been aware that it happened.

In parallel with this industrial growth during most of the 19th century and continuing until 1929, the mean monetary interest rate was also about 7 percent per year. Therefore until 1910 the price level, except for temporary disturbances, should have remained comparatively stable. Following 1910, when the physical growth rate dropped to about 2 percent per year, whereas the interest rate remained at about 7 percent, a price inflation at a rate of about 5 percent per year should have begun. Despite fluctuations, the interest rate has remained consistently higher than the physical growth rate from 1910 to the present, which implies that we should have had an almost continuous price inflation for the last 64 years.

A graphical illustration of the relations between the monetary growth, physical growth and price inflation is shown in Figure 19. The upper straight line represents the exponential growth of money at the interest rate i; the lower curve the physical growth at the lower rate a. The ratio of M (money growth) to Q (industrial growth) at any given time is proportional to the distance between those curves. If the curves are parallel, the spacing is constant and a stable price level will prevail. If the curves are divergent to the right, the price level will increase at the rate (i-a)"

These curves depict the approximate relation between the monetary growth rate and the physical growth rate that has prevailed in the United States since 1910.

Finally, as confirmatory evidence, there is shown in Figure 30 a graph of the consumer price index as computed for each year from 1800 to 1971 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The three principal distortions coincide with the War of 1812, the Civil War, and World War 1. Disregarding these, and drawing a smooth curve under the bases of each gives a very informative result. For the period from 1800 to 1910 the consumer price level remained remarkably stable. Beginning about 1910, at the time of the abrupt drop in the rate of industrial growth, prices began to inflate and they have continued to do so to the present time.

The foregoing example has been discussed in detail because it serves as a case history of the type of cultural difficulties which may be anticipated during the transition period from a phase of exponential growth to a stable state. Since the tenets of our exponential-growth culture (such as a non zero interest rate) are incompatible with a state of non growth, it is understandable that extraordinary efforts will be made to avoid a cessation of growth. Inexorably, however, physical and biological constraints must eventually prevail and appropriate cultural adjustments will have to be made."

During the question period after Dr. Hubbert's testimony Mr. Udall asked,--"this inflation that we are all so concerned about now may not necessarily be mismanagement of the economy or some temporary problems necessarily, but may be built into this whole problem of exponential growth in terms of the population and use of resources, and so on. Is that what you are saying?" Dr. Hubbert's reply was, "It has been going on, the record is unequivocal, since 1910, disregarding the disturbance of World War I."

Does Dr. Hubbert have a recommendation for the overhaul of our culture and an alternative to money? When I spoke to him by telephone in about 1970 he confirmed that he did. His suggestion was that income in units of energy could be used. In a 30 page research paper which he published while at Columbia in August 1936 titled "MAN-HOURS--A DECLINING QUANTITY" he wrote, "the American public has watched both government and business indulge in the curtailment of food production and its wholesale destruction at a time of the greatest human need in American history. They have seen their factories closed at a time when a large fraction of the population has been in want of the products of industry and when millions have been willing and anxious to work.-- What is there so difficult about the problem? What is it that has to be done in order to solve it? Simply and solely that our Continental totality shall be operated at a maximum of efficiency with a maximum conservation of resources for the maximum production and distribution of physical wealth--with a resultant standard of living greater than has ever been obtained on the North American Continent. To do this requires a distributive mechanism that will deliver the products of industry to the consuming public at whatever rate is required.

Getting something for nothing

In the distribution to the public of the products of industry, the failure of the present system is the direct result of the faulty premise upon which it is based. This is: that somehow a man is able by his personal services to render to society the equivalent of what he receives, from which it follows that the distribution to each shall be in accordance with the services rendered and that those who do not work must not eat. This is what our propagandists call 'the impossibility of getting something for nothing.' Aside from the fact that only by means of the sophistries of lawyers and economists can it be explained how, on this basis, those who do nothing at all frequently receive the largest shares of the national income, the simple fact is that it is impossible for any man to contribute to the social system the physical equivalent of what it costs the system to maintain him form birth till death--and the higher the physical standard of living the greater is this discrepancy. This is because man is an engine operating under the limitations of the same physical laws as any other engine. The energy that it takes to operate him is several times as much as any amount of work he can possibly perform. If, in addition to his food, he receives also the products of modern industry, this is due to the fact that material and energy resources happen to be available and, as compared with any contribution he can make, constitute a free gift from heaven. Stated more specifically, it costs the social system on the North American Continent the energy equivalent to nearly 10 tons of coal per year to maintain one man at the average present standard of living, and no contribution he can possibly make in terms of the energy conversion of his individual effort will ever repay the social system the cost of his social maintenance. Is it not to be wondered at, therefore, that a distributive mechanism based upon so rank a fallacy should fail to distribute; the marvel is that it has worked as well as it has. Since any human being, regardless of his personal contribution, is a social dependent with respect to the energy resources upon which society operates, and since every operation within a given society is effected at the cost of a degradation of an available supply of energy, this energy degradation, measured in appropriate physical units such as kilowatt-hours, constitutes the common physical cost of all social operations. Since also the energy-cost of maintaining a human being exceeds by a large amount his ability to repay, we can abandon the fiction that what one is to receive is in payment for what one has done, and recognize that what we are really doing is utilizing the bounty that nature has provided us. Under these circumstances we recognize that we all are getting something for nothing, and the simplest way of effecting distribution is on a basis of equality, especially so when it is considered that production can be set equal to the limit of our capacity to consume, commensurate with adequate conservation of our physical resources.

Income in Units of Energy

On this basis our distribution then becomes foolproof and incredibly simple. We keep our records of the physical costs of production in terms of the amount of extraneous energy degraded. We set industrial production arbitrarily at a rate equal to the saturation of the physical capacity of our public to consume. We distribute purchasing power in the form of energy certificates to the public, the amount issued to each being equivalent to his pro rata share of the energy-cost of the consumer goods and services to be produced during the balanced-load period for which the certificates are issued. These certificates bear the identification of the person to whom issued and are non negotiable. They resemble a bank check in that they bear no face denomination, this being entered at the time of spending. They are surrendered upon the purchase of goods or services at any center of distribution and are permanently canceled, becoming entries in a uniform accounting system. Being nonnegotiable they cannot be lost, stolen, gambled, or given away because they are invalid in the hands of any person other than the one to whom issued. If lost, like a bank checkbook, new ones may be had for the asking. Neither can they be saved because they become void at the termination of the two-year period for which they are issued. They can only be spent. Contrary to the Price System rules, the purchasing power of an individual is no longer based upon the fallacious premise that a man is being paid in proportion to the so-called 'value' of his work (since it is a physical fact that what he receives is greatly in excess of his individual effort) but upon the equal pro rata division of the net energy degraded in the production of consumer goods and services. In this manner the income of an individual is in nowise dependent upon the nature of his work, and we are then left free to reduce the working hours of our population to as low a level as technological advancement will allow, without in any manner jeopardizing the national or individual income, and without the slightest unemployment problem or poverty. "

Hubbert goes on to state that following a transition the work required of each individual, need be no longer than about 4 hours per day, 164 days per year, from the ages of 25 to 45. Income will continue until death. "Insecurity of old age is abolished and both saving and insurance become unnecessary and impossible."

My personal conclusions and recommendations are:

1. We will never again be able to get sufficient growth of the economy to eliminate or even markedly reduced unemployment. NAFTA, GATT, and Clinton's hope of growing the economy to solve unemployment is doomed to failure.

2. The promise of competing in the global economy is a hoax perpetrated upon the working and unemployed people of this country because over time a nation needs to buy and sell overseas in roughly equivalent amounts.

3. All attempts to reduce the deficit, balance the budget or pay off the national debt are futile. The deficit and the national debt represent the subsidy the government has paid in its attempt to keep growth and unemployment at the level of social tolerance.

4. The steady state economy into which we are being inexorably forced implies an interest rate of zero.

5. An interest rate of zero (as Hubbert explains) means the end of the money system. We are being forced to completely rethink our cultural ideas about how to organize our economy and distribute purchasing power.

6. Increasingly desperate means will be used by those who think we can continue to have business as usual.

7. The proposals of Negative Population Growth should be implemented immediately.

References

1. 1 Albert A. Bartlett, "Forgotten fundamentals of the energy crisis," Am. J. Phys., Vol. 46. No. 9, September 1978

• Additional recommended reading material:

• 5. Daly, Herman E. "Toward a Steady-State Economy", 1973 W. H. Freeman & Co.

• 6. Daly, Herman E. and Cobb, John B. Jr. "For the Common Good, Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment and a Sustainable Future", 1989 Beacon Press

• 7. Daly, Herman E., & Townsend, Kenneth N. editors, "Valuing the Earth, Economics, Ecology, Ethics"

• 8. Theobald, Robert, "The Challenge of Abundance", 1962 Mentor Books

• 9. Theobald. Robert, "The Guaranteed Income, Next Step in Socioeconomic Evolution?, 1967 Anchor Books

• 10. Theobald, Robert, editor, "Committed Spending, A Route to Economic Security" 1969 Anchor Books

• 11. Theobald, Robert, "The Economics of Abundance, A Non-Inflationary Future", 1970 Pitman Publishing Corp.

• 12. Theobald, Robert, "The Rapids of Change, Social Entrepreneurship in Turbulent Times" 1986 Knowledge Systems, Inc.

• 13. Theobald, Robert, "Turning the Century" Personal and Organizational Strategies for Your Changed World" 1992 Knowledge Systems, Inc.

• 14. Watt, Kenneth E. F., "The Titanic Effect , Planning for the Unthinkable" 1974 Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Did you guys know that Nickola Tesla advocated Technocracy, and was the first fellow to plant the seeds for the birth of Technocracy inc., formerly known as the Technical Alliance at Columbia University??? Wow, he was it, the dude, the genius who knew it all before it happened... The first time travel man!