Sunday, November 23rd, 2025
Laramie, Wyoming
By Dan Denning
Imagine a world governed by a small group of technocratic elites, men and women who believe the world and its economy are a giant machine. This machine can only be managed only be experts with the technical knowledge to make it work efficiently, to deliver the greatest good to the greatest number of people (individual choice has to be sacrificed to achieve the collective good).
It would inevitably lead to a totalitarian state. AI would make the rules and enforce them. Travel, healthcare, eating…all would require a good social credit score and permission from the machine. What you say in private or post on social media would be subject to restrictions and punishment. Not a pretty picture.
But this was actually a popular idea in the 1930s. Mired in the Great Depression and increasingly convinced that capitalism had failed and couldn’t be fixed, Americans were open to the idea of some other form or organizing society (not democracy, not monarchy, not communism, not fascism). A man named Howard Scott popularized the idea of a ‘Technate of America’ (that’s the map you see at the top of today’s letter).
The Technate had many controversial ideas about how the economy ought to work. But what they all had in common is that the experts would decide and you would obey. And, interestingly, that the currency of the Technate—the unit of exchange for all public and private transactions—should be based not on gold or paper money, but on energy.
Interesting idea. But here’s the important point. The technocrats are back and stronger than ever today. Billionaire tech CEOs promise a vision of society with infinite abundance. But also total surveillance and unlimited government control over your money and freedom.
Next week I’ll be talking about how you can escape the coming technocracy. It’s a Private Briefing scheduled with my friend Gabriel Custodiet from Watchman Privacy. We’ll be talking about technocracy, privacy, cyber security, cryptocurrency and a lot more. If you’re paid reader and you have a question you’d like me to ask Gabriel, leave it in the comments below or send it to bpr@bonnerprivateresearch.com
Until tomorrow!
Dan
P.S. As Bill pointed out several times this week, the ‘fatal conceit’ behind technocratic government is that men are capable of rationally designing and running a social order based on scientific expertise and central planning. They are not. Why?
Because you can’t measure individual preferences, wants, and desires. Those are subjective and change all the time. No machine—not even an all seeing and all knowing AI—can guess the secrets of the human heart.
Gabriel Custodiet published a book in late September called Privacy and Utopia. You can read it on Kindle before our Private Briefing later this week. I highly recommend it.
In your upcoming interview, if possible I would like to know what countries or parts of the world are currently, will be in the near future, the best places to reside in to avoid or at least minimize this coming control and overwatch. Everyone seems to be talking about it, but no one ever adddresses what countries or jurisdictions will tend to remain free and avoid these issues.
Thank you.
Bill, what would an AI interface say when asked if they are capable of making all the decisions necessary to run a nation. What would Chatgpt say? How about when AI achieves this glorious super intelligence, what then? Surely it would consider itself far more capable than humans to run the show.