| Notes |
The original incarnation of this technocratic model represents the realization of industrialism as a
form of political theory, for which Bacon and Saint-Simon are the original exponents. The concept
of technocracy itself, however, is usually attributed to the now forgotten American engineer
William Henry Smith who defined technocracy as ‘national industrial government’ (1919), which
later spawned a short-lived and curious attempt by fellow engineers and thinkers such as Thorstein
Veblen to turn technocracy into a fully-fledged political movement (Akin 1977, Segal 1985, Tilman
2014). From these sources, and their idealization of the technical sciences, engineering, mechanics
and the machine, the technocratic project has derived its founding idea that ‘technology’s
productive potential holds the promise of a society of abundance. Its link with science and its
inherent dynamism have the allure of modernity. Its efficiency, the perfect mating of men and
machine, is a model for society’ (Kuisel 1981, 76). |