A postulate is a curious mixture. It partakes of the nature of a fact in that it is a statement of fact, but differs from a fact in that the observations supporting it are not confirmable. A postulate partakes of the nature of a definition in that it is an agreement among men. Since this is science in the social field when considering human social systems do so with these postulates in mind.
The Technocracy Postulates
The phenomena involved in the functional operation of a social mechanism are measurable.
Social change is unidirectional and irreversible.
Technology is today the only major cause of social change.
All social theories of yesterday must be discarded.
Any and all social problems are solvable by the technological application of scientific principles on a Continental scale.
The Postulates of science:
The first postulate states that the external world actually is. In other words, a chair, a pencil,
a city, the mountains, rivers, oceans, continents really do exist. We can at
once go to work on them without having to establish their existence.
The second postulate states that nature is uniform. This means we do not have to flounder about in a world wherein a sack of flour suddenly transforms itself into a fish, and that into an automobile, and that into an oil well. The second postulate is our protection against chaos.
The third postulate states that there are symbols in the `mind' which stand for events and things in the external world. The total sum of all such symbols in all minds, after eliminating duplicates would be the sum total of that kind of knowledge for us; and the sum total of all things and events meant by these symbols, provided the symbols should ever become complete in number, would constitute the entire physical world. This means, in effect, that the mind itself is uniform. Mathematicians will note that the third postulate establishes a one-to-one correspondence between all that is in our minds and all that is in the external world. A corollary of this is that there is nothing in all the world that has the priori quality of being unknowable. In this paragraph the word `mind' has been used in it's conventional sense.
N.B.
There could be much said of various so called different economic theories, but
in application they ALL deal in evaluation and therefore are declared inapplicable
due to the advent of technologically produced abundance.
The disappearance of value automatically invalidates ALL social philosophies as potential solutions to our social problems. Social philosophies are based upon moral values of human effort.
Values and Marx
The disappearance
of values in tangible objects with an advancing technology approaching full
automation is a functional factor NOT anticipated by Marxian theory of work
values, nor by any other social philosophy.
The increase of energy-consuming devices in a high-energy civilization tends to nullify all concepts of value inherent in those of previous ages. Previously, that item which was scarcest and involved the largest expenditure of human effort was the highest in value.