Physical scientists and biologists were the first individuals to use energy flows to explain social and economic development. Joseph Henry, an American physicist and first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, remarked that the "fundamental principle of political economy is that the physical labor of man can only be ameliorated by ...the transformation of matter from a crude state to a artificial condition...by expending what is called power or energy."
The biologist-philosopher Herbert Spencer observed that human systems have the unique ability to temporarily halt and even reverse the spontaneous increase of entropy by tapping energy flows in nature. Spencer likened the evolutionary process, both biological and social, to the entropy law because the struggle for existence was a struggle for available energy and resources. Spencer stated that "evolution is a change from a less coherent form to a more coherent form, consequent on the dissipation of energy and the integration of matter."
There were a variety of Technocratic groups and organisations in a number of countries with a number of scientists, writers and others connected to ideas of thermoeconomics, bioeconomics and non-market economics. These ideas developed into the concept of an Energy Accounting based system, as opposed to a price system and the idea of a scientific social design based on thermodynamics. Technocracy Incorporated predominated these groups as to notability and popularity. That group became a popular social movement during the 1930's and is still active today. This group calls itself an educational and research organisation and continues to advocate a technate design for North America.
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