Howard Scott

Howard Scott (April 1, 1890–January 1, 1970) is best known for founding
Technocracy Incorporated.

Howard Scott and Technocracy Inc.

At the end of World War I, Howard Scott along with other prominent scientists and engineers such as Charles P. Steinmetz, and later Thorstein Veblen, formed the Technical Alliance to look at economic and social trends in North America. To do this the Alliance conducted the Energy Survey of North America. After completing this survey, it was found that there were wide scale inefficiencies in the current operation of North America from an engineering perspective that led to social problems and the wastage of natural resources in what they were to call the Price System.

Howard Scott then dissolved the Technical Alliance and formulated along with M. King Hubbert and others, the Technocracy Technate scientific social design, published as the Technocracy Study Course. Scott became the first Director-In-Chief of Technocracy Incorporated in 1933, a position he held until his death.

M. King Hubbert is said to have discovered Technocracy through a talk given by Howard Scott at Columbia University. [http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/688]

Scott cited Willard Gibbs as the intellectual scientific forefather of the concepts of Technocracy. Specifically, Gibbs' work in thermodynamics and linear vector analysis which led to the concepts of Energy Accounting [The Energy Certificate essay by Fezer. An article on energy accounting as proposed by Technocracy Inc. http://www.technocracy.org/Archives/The%20Energy%20Certificate-r.htm Article on alternative system to money 'energy accounting'] , an alternative economic system proposed by Technocracy Incorporated, which was to be used in the context of a Non-market economics system. [http://telstar.ote.cmu.edu/environ/m3/s3/05account.shtml Environmental Decision making, Science and Technology]

In 1901, Gibbs was awarded the highest possible honor granted by the international scientific community of his day, granted to only one scientist each year: the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London, for being "the first to apply the second law of thermodynamics to the exhaustive discussion of the relation between chemical, electrical, and thermal energy and capacity for external work." [ [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs Josiah Willard Gibbs] - Britannica 1911] This quotation summarizes Gibbs's greatest scientific contribution. Scott, using Gibbs' linear vector analysis, developed a calculus and modulus of design that enabled him to propose optimized solutions for industrial functions. Scott conceived of fully automated factories, integrated transportation systems, communications and electrical transmission networks, and product life-cycle planning, all in the 1920s, within the context of energy accounting, instead of what his group termed a Price system or monetary basis [Cutler J. Cleveland, [http://www.eoearth.org/article/Biophysical_economics "Biophysical economics"] , "Encyclopedia of Earth", Last updated: September 14, 2006.] .

External links

* [http://www3.sympatico.ca/cypher2/radical.htm An Authentic American Radical]
* [http://www.technocracy.org/?p=/FAQ/section3/f2 Who was Howard Scott?]
* [http://www.iww.org/cic/history/scott.html Howard Scott on IWW]
*Scott, Howard. (1933). [http://www.technocracy.org/Archives/Scott's%20Thermodynamics-r.htm Thermodynamic Interpretation of Social Phenomena]
* [http://www.technocracy.org/origins-1.htm An interview with and short video featuring Scott]
* [http://www.technocracy.org/Archives/History%20&%20Purpose-r.htm History and Purpose of Technocracy - Howard Scott]
* [http://ecen.com/eee9/ecoterme.htm Economy and Thermodynamics: Borisas Cimbleris (1998)]
* [http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/bitstream/1892/5072/1/b13876442.pdf The Technocrats 1919-1967: A Case Study Of Conflict In A Social Movement, David Adair]

Citation

``The injection of monetary concepts into all discussions of national wealth and income wholly confuses the people as to the actual issues at stake, and furthermore serve as a handy screen behind which, with a little word juggling, the business-political operators of the Price System can continue their profitable activities without being too greatly embarrassed by outside interference. It is high time that the significance of national wealth and income be understood by every citizen on the North American Continent."--HOWARD SCOTT

References