After the Great Remix

The old labels are peeling off

The original Technocracy movement offered a solution to human workers being replaced by machines. These men wanted to use technology to enhance human abilities and individuality, they insisted, rather than enslave or destroy us. They advocated liberation through total control.

As the Great Depression dragged on, technocrats proposed replacing hard money with “energy certificates.” A person's worth would be measured by technical expertise. Morons would go on the dole.

The original technocrats were anti-communist, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, and anti-democratic. They were also total control freaks.

Technocrats wanted humanity governed by scientists and technical experts. They envisioned a world where machines create radical abundance. They promised a “bloodless revolution” to sweep the old ways aside. “The high road to this new era can be one of orderly progression under technological control.”

That approach flopped. As the Great Depression gave way to WWII, official technocracy lost out to other technological systems—communism, fascism, capitalism, and liberal democracy. This was a critical moment for America.

Fascism was crushed. Communism was largely contained. Capitalism and liberal democracy pressed onward to their logical conclusions. Yet as with all these modes of governance, technocracy’s influence still endures.

I wouldn't call our current Silicon Valley elites “technocrats” in the original sense. It’s understandable that people cling to 20th century labels like “technocracy,” “communism,” “fascism,” “capitalism,” and “liberal democracy.” I still use them reflexively. But after the Great Remix of the early 21st century, these labels lack precision and relevance.

So what do we call the tech titans who attended Trump's inauguration, or those now gathering in Davos? “Transhumanist oligarchs”? “Kleptocratic wizards”? “Robot-loving antichrists”?

Many will call them “great men” as if their livelihoods depend on it. Some will call them “saviors.”

Call these tech titans what you will, I call them a menace. They do not serve God—they serve algorithmic Mammon. They offer automation in place of human autonomy. They uphold the artificial over the organic. They dream of sand gods and the Greater Replacement.

If we don't untie the knot tightening around us, we are destined to be their subjects. The digital will be confused with the spiritual and America's new “Golden Age” will be a Cyborg Theocracy. Even as words fail, its priests will call this “freedom.”

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