Techno-Socialism, A Cybernetic Manifesto

By Duane Paul Murphy

Human beings of the ancient and modern times from the previous millennia have constantly envisioned a more progressive future than what we have now. The envisioned science, technology, engineering, culture, reason, rationality, democracy, and republicanism would eventually liberate us from laborious work, brutal wars and conflicts and political rule of the few. However, since the beginning of the 21st century in the 3rd millennium C.E. as well as the industrial revolution and globalization, the recent past and current present are starting to construct a bleaker future for ourselves and the rest of humanity.

Pollution and other forms of resource overuse are gradually increasing to the point that we are contaminating our water, air, soil, and ultimately climate in the only world we know. Wars and conflicts have gotten more technologically advanced as well as decentralized in the form of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. Contemporary politics, civics, media, and government have become more of an institutional tool for those at the top, the rich and the religious, to further advance illiberal policies or ideas as well as tactics to keep the rest of the majority in constant fear and suffering for the sake of dogma and profits. Because of such factors leading to the world’s gradual decline of its very existence, socialism for the rich and the religious and capitalism for the rest of us is the greatest threat to our humanity.

While liberalized markets and trade have lifted millions of people all over the world from extreme poverty and other difficulties, the rule of the few marches on as thousands if not more than a million people around the world own more than 50 to 80% of the global wealth on a planet of more than 7 billion. The entire planet itself and all of its inhabitants cannot continue this path if it wants to continue to survive in a chaotic and harmonious universe.

That is why techno-socialism, a particular type of socialism that emphasizes and embraces futurism as well as advances in science, technology, engineering, and medicine, must be our future and our destiny. Imagine open market and trade world where automation can become a basis for social ownership of the means of production and distribution in the form of radical workplace democratization along with unionized labor. With the massive generation of wealth created from scientific and technological advancements in the decentralized, diversified, democratized economy run by the workers and consumers, universal public services such as universal healthcare, universal education, full employment, and advanced infrastructure can drastically improve the lives of millions if not billions of people around the world.

Socialism of the past must be remembered for the annals of history, but it must be revitalized and modernized for a new world. New technologies and science will not only attempt to create mass abundance of needed resources, but also free us from minimal labor, environmental disaster, and dehumanization.