One of my sources of information is Our World in Data (OWID). Their mission is to publish the research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. They write:
Poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality: The world faces many great and terrifying problems. It is these large problems that our work at Our World in Data focuses on.
Thanks to the work of thousands of researchers around the world who dedicate their lives to it, we often have a good understanding of how it is possible to make progress against the large problems we are facing. The world has the resources to do much better and reduce the suffering in the world.
We believe that a key reason why we fail to achieve the progress we are capable of is that we do not make enough use of this existing research and data: the important knowledge is often stored in inaccessible databases, locked away behind paywalls and buried under jargon in academic papers.
There is general agreement that after World War II, there was a decline in wars until the 1970s and 1980s, when it increased, especially in Asia. War declined again in the 1990s and early 2000s, but rose again, starting about 2012. The 2011 Arab uprisings led to conflicts in Libya, Syria and Yemen. NATO’s incursion into Libya caused instability that resulted in an ongoing crisis in the Sahel region. In 2014, there was the Russian invasion of Crimea. In 2020 there was the Azerbaijani-Armenian war over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave; another war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region; military conflict in Myanmar starting in 2021; Russia’s 2022 assault on Ukraine. In 2023 war started again in Sudan and Gaza.
OWID is also concerned about democracy. Here they write: Democracy is in decline, whether we look at big changes in the number of democracies and the people living in them; at small changes in the extent of democratic rights; or at medium-sized changes in the number of, and people living in, countries that are autocratizing… The extent of this decline is substantial, but it is also uncertain and limited. We can see it clearly across democracy metrics: the world has fallen from all-time democratic highs to a level similar to earlier decades. But the extent of this decline depends on which democracy measure we use. And it is limited in the sense that the world remains much more democratic than it was even half a century ago… Finally, the recent democratic decline is precedented, and past declines were reversed. The world underwent phases of autocratization in the 1930s and again in the 1960s and 1970s. Back then, people fought to turn the tide, and pushed democratic rights to unprecedented heights. We can do the same again… Using the [Regimes of the World] RoW data, the chart shows that the world has become less democratic in recent years. The number of democracies in the world reached an all-time high in 2016, with 96 electoral democracies. In 2022, their number has fallen to 90 countries.
People should probably devote some time attempting to understanding the world’s political and economic situation, on a regional basis. Even before the pandemic changed everything, many people felt they were simply pawns in an economic game. After the pandemic, they were even more convinced of their pawn status.
Geoscheme is my personal approach to organizing and understanding geographical regions. I have used it for so many years, that its origins are lost in the depths of time. There are many maps with regions. At some point, I appropriated one for my own purposes, creating an alphabetic coding in the process.
The regions, along with my codes, are:
Africa: [A] Southern Africa; [B] Eastern Africa; [C] Middle Africa; [D] Western Africa; [E] Northern Africa. Europe: [F] Southern Europe; [G] Western Europe; [H] Northern Europe; [I] Eastern Europe + North Asia. Asia: [J] Western Asia; [K] Central Asia; [L] Southern Asia; [M] Eastern Asia; [N] South-Eastern Asia. Oceania: [O] Australia and New Zealand; [P] Melanesia; [Q] Micronesia; [R] Polynesia. Americas: [S] Northern America; [T] Caribbean; [U] Central America; [V] South America. Other: [W] Antarctica; [X] Atlantic Ocean; [Y] Pacific Ocean; [Z] Indian Ocean.
There are 26 different regions, with some more important than others. Because of their large populations and economic impact, southern Asia and eastern Asia are especially important. One approach to exploring regions is to review them using an assigned week number. I use ISO week numbers, with each week beginning on a monday. USA and Canada have a different approach, with each week starting on a sunday. Thus, this weblog post was published towards the end of week 14. This means that my geographical focal area this week is region N, the 14th letter in the alphabet, which involves south east Asia and Oceania.
I spend more time diverging from than focusing on the Geoschema region. For example, this week I spent time reading about crime writer Garry Disher (1949 – ) and the Mornington Peninsula, south east of Melbourne. The recent collapse of the Baltimore Bridge, encouraged me to learn more about it. According to Geoscheme, I should have waited until week 19, which starts on 2024-05-06. The key is to allow some degree of flexibility.
Other information sources
As I age I feel less need to see the world in person. The internett provides most of my information. In addition to OWID, there is Wikipedia, TED-talks, The Guardian newspaper and Slashdot. We also subscribe to one paper Newspaper, Inderøyningen, that arrives weekly on fridays.
For a maximum of one hour in the evenings, I allow myself to sit in the comfort of an Ikea Poeng chair in a television nook, and see an edited perspective on some aspect of the world, viewing documentaries with texting = closed captions, and sound. Television avoids the excesses of heat, cold, drought and insects, and the trauma of volcanoes and earthquakes. This week we have watched a three part series about the 2015-04-15 earthquake in Nepal.
We have numerous epub books that are managed by Calibre and are stored in a database on our server. When someone wants to read an e-book, the book can be transferred over to a Kobo e-reader (of which we have three) or read on a computer using appropriate software. Most of Trish’s reading is done with an e-reader, while she is knitting.
I use my e-reader much less, and prefer to read paper books. Yes, we also have a library filled with paper books. I am currently reading Blood Red, Snow White (2007), a historical young adult novel by Marcus Sedgwick (1968 – 2022), set in Russia during the revolution, a fictional account of author Arthur Ransome (1884 – 1967), but containing explainers about events from 1905 to 1919.
Next week’s weblog post will be posted on sunday, not saturday. It is about Rachel Carson, and will commemorate her life on the 60th anniversary of her death, 1964-04-14.
In an age of global warming/ heating/ boiling it is important to have a basic understanding of a few chemicals. Methane is one of them.
A chemical compound is a substance made of many identical molecules containing atoms from more than one chemical element, held together by chemical bonds. There are several different types of chemical bonds, but those will not be discussed here, but the next time a chemical is presented.
Atmospheric oxygen = O2 is not a compound because there are atoms of only one element present, two atoms of oxygen joined together. Water = H20 is a chemical compound. It consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. A compound can be transformed into a different substance by a chemical reaction, typically involving interactions with other substances, and where bonds between atoms may be broken and/or new bonds formed.
Natural gas is not a compound, but a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily (typically 97%) of methane. The chemical formula for methane, CH4, indicates that it is a compound, with one carbon atom bonding with four hydrogen atoms to create a methane compound. Natural gas/ methane used to be considered a clean-burning bridge fuel, an intermediate step between coal and renewables, to reduce emissions. Such a pleasant fantasy.
Radiative forcing = climate forcing = a climate science concept to quantify the change in energy balance in the Earth’s atmosphere caused by various factors, such as concentrations of greenhouse gases, aerosols, and changes in solar radiation. Technically, it is the change in the net = downward minus upward = radiative flux (expressed in W/m2) due to a change in an external driver of climate change. Both carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are examples of external drivers. Most of the atmosphere is made up of nitrogen (N2) in addition to about 21% oxygen (O2).
The International Energy Agency 2024 methane tracker chart (below) shows the countries with the worst methane emissions from their oil and gas industries. At the far end of the chart is Norway which releases 0.01% well to end use emissions.
Worst in class is the United States, which is also the world’s largest producer of gas and oil by volume. USA produces 943.2 Gm3 of natural gas, compared to second-place Russia’s 701.7 Gm3. Canada’s sixth-place produces 172.3 Gm3, and Norway’s 11th place produces 11.43 Gm3. The natural gas figures are from The CIA World Factbook, 2021. From the same source, one can read that USA produces considerably more oil than than second-place Russia, and third-place Saudi Arabia. Part of the reason for United States’ position is its unconventional oil and gas extraction with shale oil and fracking. Both lead to high methane emissions.
For over fifty years, I have been one of those lummoxes who refuses to use non-metric units. For example, most days I refuse to use figures like 13.5 million tons, or even the quasi-metric equivalent expressed in tonnes. 1 ton = ca. 907 kg. Instead, I convert the original quantity to something metric. In this case 12.25 Tg.
The use of metric prefixes dates back to the definition of kilogram after the French Revolution. Currently there are 24 prefixes in use, ranging from quecto- (q) = 10 -30 to quetta- (Q) = 1030. Quecto, ronto (10-27), ronna (1027) and quetta were added in 2022. Wikipedia has an enjoyable (at least for some of us) article about metric prefixes.
Methane is a gas, so it is necessary to understand how gasses are measured. It begins with pressure. The standard atmosphere (atm) is an American unit of pressure defined as 101325 Pa = 101.325 kPa. While the Pascal is an SI unit, most metric users will call the standard atmosphere 1 bar, more accurately 1.01325 bar. Both of these units refer to a standard pressure, approximately equal to Earth’s average atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Methane is a colourless and transparent gas. It has a boiling point of −161.5 °C = -258.7 °F (read: deadly cold) at a pressure = 1 atm. As a gas, it is flammable over a range of concentrations (5.4%–17%) in air at 1 atm.
Methane is also odorless. The smell of natural gas some people experience at various locations is caused by the addition of an odorant for safety purposes. Usually the odorant is tert-butylthiol = tert-butyl mercaptan (TBM) = (CH3)3CSH often abbreviated t-BuSH. Given a choice, most people prefer to smell an odorant, alerting them to a gas leakage, than to die in an unannounced gas explosion.
Methane does more damage in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Thus the twenty year global warming potential (GWP-20) = 81.2. That second number is used to convert the pollutant into a CO2 equivalent. In the case of methane, GWP-100 = 27.9, is significantly less because methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime than carbon dioxide. Thus, 12.25 Tg of methane has the effect of 994.7 Tg GWP-20 of CO2. Despite it not being totally correct, I am going to refer to this as its 1 Pg GWP-20 C02 equivalent. The GWP-100 value is 340 Tg. The world’s total carbon dioxide emissions are about 40 billion tons a year = ca 3.6 Pg/ year.
The most common chemical reactions of methane are combustion, steam reformation of synthetic gas and halogenation.
Combustion, is an exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel = reductant and an oxidant = most often atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products. Redox = reduction–oxidation = chemical reaction where oxidation results in the loss of electrons while reduction results in a gain of electrons. Exothermic means the reaction releases energy from the system to its surroundings, usually in the form of heat.
CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O
Steam reforming to synthetic gas (syngas) is an endothermic process = a chemical/ physical process that requires/ absorbs heat from its surroundings. Endothermic is the opposite of exothermic. In this case, there is a need for energy ( 206 kJ/mol of methane) for the reaction to take place:
CH4 + H2O → CO + 3 H2
Halogenation is a chemical reaction that entails the introduction of one or more halogens into a compound. Halogens form a group (#17) a column of elements with similar characteristics, in the periodic table. They consist of five (or six) chemically related elements from top = lightest, to bottom = heaviest, atomic mass. Their symbols, atomic number = position and approximate atomic mass/ weight are: fluorine (F #9, 18.998), chlorine (Cl #17, 35.45), bromine (Br #35, 79.904), iodine (I #53, 126.9), and the radioactive elements astatine (At #85, 210) and tennessine (Ts #117, 294). Not all chemists accept tennessine as a halogen. The word halogen = salt former = salt maker. When halogens react with metals, they produce salts. Think: NaCl (sodium chloride) or common table salt. Sodium (Na) is a metal, chlorine (Cl) is a halogen.
CH4 + Cl2 → CH3Cl + HCl
Note: This is not the first chemical I have written about. Earlier, I wrote a weblog post about silicone.
Clifford Hugh Douglas (1879 – 1952) = Major Douglas, is credited as the founder of the social credit movement. He worked as an electrical engineer throughout the British empire. During World War I, he reorganized work at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, a research institution located at Farnborough Airfield in Hampshire, England. There he noticed that the costs of goods produced exceeded that paid in wages, salaries and dividends. This contradicted the prevailing economic theory of David Ricardo (1772 – 1823), that stated that all costs were distributed simultaneously as purchasing power.
The core of his economic argument was that the economic system was organized to maximize profits for those with economic power by creating unnecessary scarcity. One short, but interesting source that comments about this has been written by Janet Martin-Nielsen (1982 – ).
Douglas claimed there were three possible economic policy alternatives:
1. To impose a system of thought and action.
2. To provide employment.
3. To provide goods and services.
Douglas felt most governments aimed at the first two policies. He aimed to satisfy the third. Because of this disparity between the flow of money and stated industry objectives, the delivery of goods and services, he began to apply engineering methods to the economic system.
This led Douglas to distinguished between values, costs and prices. He claimed that economists were obsessed about values. He considered values to be subjective, incapable of being measured objectively. He rejected money as a standard/ measure, of value, but regarded it as a medium of communication whereby consumers could direct the distribution of production.
Wealth is derived from the Old Englishwela = well-being. Douglas believed that all production should increase personal well-being. Production that does not directly increase personal well-being is waste = economic sabotage. Consumers pay for the costs of production, including waste. This results in wasted work. Douglas believed that this waste was directly linked to confusion about the purpose of an economic system, especially the mistaken belief that it exists to provide employment.
Douglas noted that the long-term consequence of a full-employment policy is a trade war, that typically leads to a real war. That is, full employment leads to excessive capital production (as expressed in the 21st century by extreme/ billionaire wealth). Where this does not use up all of the capital there is an opportunity for military build-up, Military buildup results in violence or an unnecessary accumulation of weapons.
The social credit admonition: He who calls for Full-Employment calls for War! was expressed by John Hargrave (1894 – 1982) leader of the Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Hargrave was also a Quaker and a pacifist, but enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in World War I. This experience convinced him that modern civilization had failed, expressed in The Great War Brings It Home (1919), and a call for a character-building and physical training foundation, The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, in 1920, as a movement for all ages and genders, and a progressive alternative to the Boy Scouts. He was often regarded as a potential replacement as Chief Scout Robert Baden-Powell (1857 – 1941), at least until Baden-Powell expelled Hargrave from the scout movement.
Hargrave wrote The Fighting Programme of the Social Credit Party in 1939, although I rely on a second edition, published in 1941. It listed twelve points: 1. Finance = Establish a Sane Economic System; 2. Government = Make the Will of the People Effective; 3. Work = Abolish Unemployment and Wage Slavery; 4. Defence = Create Effective Defence Forces; 5. Food Supply = Regenerate the Soil; 6. Health = Regenerate the People; 7. Industry = Increase Mechanisation; 8. Building = Demolish the Slums: Build New Towns and Cities; 9. Transport = Reorganise the Transport System; 10. Education = Provide Equal Opportunity for All; 11. Culture = Make Leisure Available to All; 12. Foreign Policy = Abolish War. Through the rest of the book these points are explained in greater detail.
An aside: Hargrave was also a founder of one of the coloured shirt movements that followed the first world war, the Social Credit centrist green shirts. Juan Francisco Fuentes counts 10 green, 8 blue, 4 each black, grey and red, 2 brown, 1 white and 1 orange = 34 groups, of which 25 are right wing, 2 are centre and 7 are left wing. These included: The brownshirts or Sturmabteilung, the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s; Hirden, a Quisling/ Nasjonalsamling equivalent in Norway; the blackshirts or squadristi of the Italian Voluntary Militia for National Security, originally the paramilitary wing of the National Fascist Party but, after 1923, an all-volunteer militia in Italy under the fascists.
Much of the world entered a depression in 1929. In Canada, the Alberta Social Credit party was founded in 1934, in the middle of this depression. In the 1935 provincial election it won a majority government, remaining in power until 1971. It was initially led by Bible Bill, William Aberhart (1878 – 1943). Aberhart added a layer of evangelical Christianity to the economic mix. For this, and other reasons, Douglas was not impressed with this party’s interpretation of the principles outlined, and especially disliked the inclusion of economic content from Johann Silvio Gesell (1862 – 1930) a German-Argentine economist, and founder of Freiwirtschaft, an economic model for market socialism. Alberta Social Credit issued Prosperity Certificates = funny money, based on Silvio Gesell’s ideas.
In 1935, Hargrave started to work for the Alberta Social Credit party. It lasted one year. He returned to Britain in 1936.
After Aberhart’s death in 1943, Earnest Manning (1908 – 1996) took over party leadership. Manning was regarded as Aberhart’s religious protege and closest political associate. However, the party became increasingly socially and fiscally conservative, mainly due to Manning’s pragmatism. Manning was premier of Alberta from 1943 to 1968. As Wikipedia explains: Under Manning, Alberta became a virtual one-party province. He led Social Credit to an incredible seven consecutive election victories between 1944 and 1967, usually with more than 50% of the popular vote, and only once had to face more than 10 opposition MLAs.
The province of British Columbia, immediately to the west of Alberta, also formed Social Credit organizations in the early 1930s. This did not result in political influence, until the early 1950s, when the party formed governments between 1952 and 1991, except for the years 1972 to 1975, when the British Columbia New Democratic Party governed. Unlike Alberta, the emergence and continued popularity of Social Credit had nothing to do with depression relief. Rather it stemmed from a revolt against corruption involving a Liberal – Conservative coalition.
Leader of the party from 1952 to 1972 was W.A.C./ Cece/ Wacky Bennett (1900 – 1979), followed by his son Bill Bennett (1932 – 2015), who was premier from 1975 to 1986. The downfall of the party had its roots in the election of Bill Vander Zalm (1934 – ) as party leader.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Social Credit in British Columbia is its attempt to ride two horses simultaneously. It is both a free enterprise party, but also responsible for purchasing BC Electric and Blackball Ferries to form the backbone of BC Hydro and BC Ferries, respectively. Both are crown = government owned, corporations.
My interest in Social Credit stems from living in British Columbia from 1948 to 1980, where a Social Credit government was in power, for most of those years. I think one of the reasons for its popularity, was its investment in highways. These are especially important in mountainous areas of the world.
I particularly remember Phil Gaglardi (1913 – 1995), a Pentacostal minister from Kamloops, and minister of highways for most of my formative years. The provincial highways construction signs always ended with Sorry for the inconvenience and his name and title. His nickname, Flying Phil, came from his tendency to speed while driving and accrue speeding tickets. He was also noted for encouraging the provincial government to buy a Lear Jet, for use by ministers.
Social Credit no longer exists in Canada as a political party, and its economic philosophy is no longer regarded as important.
Currently, my interests in economic philosophy relate to alternative forms of economics that are better for the planet and living human beings, especially. When Trish and I first moved to Norway in 1980, it felt like a poorer society. That feeling did not last long, as oil infused the country with wealth. Some of the differences we noted were shorter working hours and longer holidays as well as (more) affordable houses. I am not happy with all of the changes made in the intervening forty plus years. In more recent years, the EV transition has been notable.
To understand how societies can transform themselves economically, I recommend the following books, in chronological order: Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism (2010); Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level (2011); Mariana Muzzucato, The Entrepreneurial State (2013); Thomas Piketty, Capitial in the 21st Century (2016); Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist (2017); Mariana Muzzucato, The Mission Economy (2021); Thomas Piketty, Brief History of Equality (2022); Ingrid Robeyns, Limitarianism (2024).
Publication of this weblog post has been postponed from 2023-03-18 at 12:00 to 2024-03-23 at 12:00.
If we are wise, we will help the people everywhere to get the good and abundant life… to become masters of their own destiny.
When you stop pioneering, you die.
I first became acquainted with the Antigonish movement, Saint Francis Xavier University (SFXU), and the Coady Institute (CI) when I was living in Halifax in 1975. Since the start of the internet age, I have periodically looked at websites related to these.
It is now a century since the Antigonish movement was started. Jimmy Tompkins (1870 – 1953) and Moses Coady (1882 – 1959) are generally regarded as its founding figures. They were both Roman Catholic priests from the Margaree Valley on Cape Breton Island. They were double-cousins of each other, of Irish ancestry.
Tompkins was vice-rector then vice-president and prefect of studies at SFXU from 1907 to 1923. He offended Antigonish Bishop James Morrison (1861 – 1950) and was exiled to Canso, Nova Scotia. Here, he observed the plight of the fishing community and helped organize cooperative fisheries, stores, housing projects, and adult study groups. In addition, Tompkins started the first regional library in Nova Scotia, its first credit union and Tompkinsville (as it was commonly called) a cooperative housing association in Reserve Mines, about 15 km north east of Sydney. Tompkins can be considered the spiritual founder of the Antigonish movement.
The movement is named after the Antigonish diocese. It currently includes 99 parishes and mission churches in seven deaneries, located in Northeastern Nova Scotia, including all of Cape Breton Island. In 1924, the area experienced labour unrest, especially in the coals mines, and out-migration. It was proving difficult to counteract these issues. Coady was working on a project to put into practice his theory that: The short, quick, scientific way to progress in the world, even in the field of formal education of youth, was through the enlightenment and education of adults. He posed two questions: What should people do to get life in this community and what should they think about and study to enable them to get it? The basic technique of the Antigonish Movement–the formation of study clubs acting as crucibles in which co-operative group action was created through a persistent process of questioning, debate, education and learning–had emerged.
A seminary was established at Arichat on Isle Madame, accessible from Cape Breton Island, in 1853. In 1855, it was moved to Antagonish, on the Nova Scotia mainland, 100 km = 60 miles away and renamed St. Francis Xavier University. In 1928, Coady was appointed the first director of the extension department of SFXU. In 1930, Coady and the extension department initiated local community actions, calling mass meetings and introducing study clubs. Coady would speak at these meetings often and lectured the community on its failings; he then challenged them to ask key questions: What do we need and how can we get it?
Coady’s book, Master of Their Own Destiny (1939) is available at the Internet Archive. After his death, the CI was opened at SFXU to continue his work in emerging nations. CI offers on-site and on-line educational programs with an emphasis on social change. The focus is on practice and participation, using learner-centered and asset-based methods with a potential for personal growth and social transformation.
Currently 12 on-site courses are offered at SFXU in Antigonish. These include Asset-Based and Community-Led Development: Theory and Practice which provides an opportunity to share and to learn about the principles, practices and tools that put local assets and action at the centre of development initiatives. This provides a time-out for participants to question conventional community development practices and beliefs, and to re-evaluate the role of institutions in stimulating and supporting genuine asset-based and citizen-led development (ABCD). Another on-site program has a focus on Community Led Solutions for Climate Change. Human-induced climate change is the most pressing global issue of our time. The course uses case studies from different regions of the world and draws on the experiences of participants, facilitators, local practitioners, activists and community members.
There are also twelve online programs offered by SFXU that use various communications platforms.
While all of these programs invite the participation of women, five of the twelve on-site and two of the online programs are specifically for women, without male participation. These are: Feminist Advocacy for Agency, Equity and Justice; Indigenous Women in Community Leadership; Towards Decolonial Feminist Leadership; Women’s Leadership for Community Development; and, Advancing Women’s Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding for Community Development. The two online programs specifically for woman are: Feminist Leadership for capabilities, ecology and transformation; and, Resources and Tools for Working with Young Women Leaders.
Action
Life-long learning is important. Adult education opportunities need to be provided, including topics in economics related to asset management.
People need a living wage. This is non-negotiable. Learn about this in context. This also means that there should be a maximum wage, and a ceiling on assets.
People need control of the assets that affect their lives. At a minimum, this means producer co-operatives, consumer co-operatives, housing co-operatives and credit unions.
Once the material needs of people have been met, spiritual needs can be worked on.
Personal
For the past 70 years I have tried to understand my place in the world. It has been confusing. To begin with, I had to separate an unknown nature, from a misknown nurture. Misknown? Yes, when my paternal Scottish roots turn out to be Scottish and Irish, the latter from Mohill, County Leitrim, and my maternal English roots turn out to be Scottish and English, with the Scottish probably from Roxburghshire in the Borders area. Yes, when my Protestant heritage is largely Catholic.
In this post I attempted to reveal my spiritual connection to the Antagonish Movement and the Margaree Valley of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The MacLellans settled there in 1795 or 1821 (sources vary). Some sources claim that the brother of my MacLellan ancestor was the Catholic priest for these Scottish immigrants.
For most of my life, I have known that the MacLellans had come from the Outer Hebrides. Barra, I was told. However, this turns out to be a fleeting moment on South Uist. Before that it was Swordland, on the mainland of Scotland. Swordland is a small hamlet in North Morar part of the Lochaber district of Highland Council Area. It lies on the northern shoreline of Loch Morar, about 1 km south of Tarbet. Alasdair visited this area in 2023, and found numerous MacLellans including several with the names Alasdair and Shelagh.
On Cape Breton Island, I was told the MacLellans lived in Sydney Mines. It turns out that this was just another stop, on a journey that led to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. They had actually lived in the Margaree Valley. I had been told that given name Alexander = Alasdair, in Scot’s Gaelic, was common, both meaning, helper of man. Another common given name was Archibald = Gilleasbuig, in Scot’s Gaelic, meaning servant of the bishop.
Nature? In 2017, I found out that my biological father, Percy Bradd (1914 – 1956) was also Catholic. My biological mother was Protestant. I chose to be a Unitarian, and then a Baha’i.
I am planning one last trip to Nova Scotia, scheduled for the summer of 2025. I was last there in 1976, close enough to fifty years earlier. I am looking forward to seeing Cape Breton again, especially visiting the Margaree Valley for the first time. On the Nova Scotia mainland, SFXU and Antigonish more generally, are intended places to visit. I am also looking forward to seeing how Halifax has changed.
This weblog post investigates the history of Technocracy, with its potential to develop a New World Order into something unexpected by the vast majority of modern critics: a currency that results in greater equality, or at a minimum, eliminates the extremes of wealth and poverty. Here, some references to contemporary issues will also be made to help clarify the subject.
Technocracy is derived from the Greek words techne = skill and kratos = rule. Thus, it is government by skilled engineers, scientists and technicians as opposed to elected officials. It was opposed to all other forms of government, including communism, socialism and fascism, all of which function with a price-based economy.
Technocracy can trace its origins to the scientific autocracy of Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) and in the positivism of Auguste Comte (1798- 1857), sometimes referred to as the father of the social sciences. Positivism elevated science and the scientific method above metaphysical revelation. Technocrats embraced positivism because they believed that social progress was possible only through science and technology.
Technocracy as a social concept originated with William Henry Smyth (1855 – 1940), a California engineer, who used the term in Technocracy – Ways and Means to Gain Industrial Democracy (1919), published in the Journal of Industrial Management. Smyth wanted engineers and scientists to be included in decision-making processes. Even in the new millennium, there is an effort to silence the influence of engineers, scientists and technologists in decision making. One has only to see the situation at Boeing, where after its merger with McDonnell-Douglas, in 1997, the company moved its head office to Chicago in 2005, to restrict engineers from having influence over corporate decisions. This allowed the short-term interests of share-holders to be placed above the makers (and users) of its products.
Norwegian-American economist and sociologist, Thorstein Veblen (1857 – 1929), known for his criticism of capitalism, significantly influenced technocracy with an article, Engineers and the Price System (1921). Here he argued for the formation of a Soviet of Technicians, a precursor to a more socialistic organization of economic affairs.
As an early advocate of technocracy, Veblen was a member of the Technical Alliance, consisting of engineers, scientists and others in New York City. Veblen predicted business enterprises would decay once they encounter new inventions. Clayton Christensen (1952 – 2020) makes a similar point in The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997) where he describes disruptive innovation. A typical example is that of steam/ power shovel manufacturers, none of whom were able to survive the disruption that came with hydraulic excavators. In the 21st century, one sees signs that legacy automotive manufacturers, are incapable of competing with Tesla, BYD and others.
The technocracy movement criticized the price system as incapable of effective action. The technocrats proposed phasing out the price system and replacing it with a measurable energy unit, today, most commonly, the joule. If this is not used within a specified period of time, the currency expires. People then receive a new allocation based on new energy production quotas for the next period.
In the early 1930s, the depression stirred public interest in finding alternative solutions. One of the major characteristics that distinguishes technocractic organisations from others was its energy-based accounting system. Technocrats saw this as a mechanism to help the economy heal from the the crisis. However, the public interest in technocracy declined by the mid-1930s following the emergence of Franklin Roosevelt’s (1882 – 1945) New Deal, introduced to counter the depression. The New Deal involved public work and financial reforms introduced between 1933 and 1939.
Another challenge facing Technocracy and, as will be shown in a subsequent weblog post, Social Credit, is its anti-war attitudes. Governments, particularly in the 20th century, were often eager to use war as a solution for their problems. Thus, before the Second World War, technocratic organizations were banned in Canada due to their alleged opposition to war. The ban in Canada was lifted in 1943 when the organizations pledged their commitment to the war effort by proposing a program of total enrollment to any war.
Technocracy is considered undemocratic, since it allows people with technical expertise to make decisions, potentially against the will of the population. I fail to see how this differs significantly from political parties using experts in economics or business management to propose, justify then impose political decisions. Most political decisions are not based on principles, but on targeting groups to impact. Frequently, those targeted groups are those that make the most significant donations to a political party.
Several technocratic organizations were established immediately after the First World War, such as New Machines and the Soviet of Technicians. However, these organizations did not last long.
Technocracy, as a non-political philosophy, was started in the United States by Howard Scott (1890 – 1970) and Marion King Hubbert (1903 – 1989) in the 1930s. They proposed replacing government with technocrats, scientists and engineers who possessed the necessary skills and experience to manage the economy. They argued that a society headed by technical experts would be more productive and rational.
Hubbert, then a young geoscientist who would later (in 1948-1956) invent the now-famous Peak Oil Theory. Hubbert stated that the discovery of new energy reserves and their production would be outstripped by usage, thereby eventually causing economic and social havoc. Many modern followers of Peak Oil Theory believe that the 2007-2009 global recession was exacerbated in part by record oil prices that reflected the validity of this theory. However, attempts to find collaborative evidence of this, have proved futile.
Hubbert received all of his higher education at the University of Chicago, graduating with a PhD in 1937. He later taught geophysics at Columbia University. In 1933, Hubbert and Howard Scott formed an organization called Technocracy, Inc.
The principles of technocracy soon resulted in Hubbert and Scott also co-authoring Technocracy Study Course in 1934. This book is the root document to which most modern technocratic thinking can be traced. It can be downloaded at no expense. At is most basic, Technocracy postulated that only scientists and engineers are capable of running a complex, technology-based society. They argued that, because technology changed the nature of societies, previous methods of government and economy were obsolete. They disdained politicians and bureaucrats, who they viewed as incompetent. By utilizing the scientific method and scientific management techniques, Technocrats hoped to squeeze the massive inefficiencies out of running a society, thereby providing more benefits for all members of society while consuming less resources.
The other integral part of Technocracy was to implement an economic system based on energy allocation rather than price. They proposed to replace money with energy credits. This focus on the efficient use of energy hints at Technocracy being a sustainable ecological/ environmental movement in the United States.
In Technocracy Study Course, Hubbert & Scott state: Although [the earth] is not an isolated system the changes in the configuration of matter on the earth, such as the erosion of soil, the making of mountains, the burning of coal and oil, and the mining of metals are all typical and characteristic examples of irreversible processes, involving in each case an increase of entropy. (p. 49)
The modern emphasis on curtailing carbon fuel consumption that causes global warming and CO2 emissions is essentially a product of early Technocratic thinking. As scientists, Hubbert and Scott tried to explain (or justify) their arguments in terms of physics, especially the law of thermodynamics = the study of energy conversion between heat and mechanical work.
Entropy is a concept within thermodynamics that represents the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work. Entropy thus increases as matter and energy in the system degrade toward the ultimate state of inert uniformity. In layman’s terms, entropy means once you use it, you lose it for good. Furthermore, the end state of entropy is inert uniformity where nothing takes place. Thus, if man uses up all the available energy and/or destroys its ecological basis, it cannot be repeated or restored ever again.
Howard Scott wrote an article that appeared in Technocracy Magazine in 1937-07. It described an Energy Distribution Card in great detail, declaring it a: means of accounting is a part of Technocracy’s proposed change in the course of how our socioeconomic system can be organized.
He further wrote: The certificate will be issued directly to the individual. It is nontransferable and nonnegotiable; therefore, it cannot be stolen, lost, loaned, borrowed, or given away. It is noncumulative; therefore, it cannot be saved, and it does not accrue or bear interest. It need not be spent but loses its validity after a designated time period.
At one point Technocracy showed an updated Energy Distribution Card. It was similar to a contemporary debit/ credit card, with an embedded microchip, that contained all the information needed to use the card. Of course there is no need to restrict this to that technology. A smartphone could equally well contain an Energy Distribution app. It was contended that a card/ app could provide a universal identification document. This also sheds light on a more negative aspect of Technocracy’s philosophy, which allowed each person to be monitored and accounted for, to track their consumption of energy, and their contributions to manufacturing processes.
Modern Carbon Markets
The modern system of carbon credits was an invention of the Kyoto Protocol and started to gain momentum in 2002 with the establishment of the first domestic economy-wide trading scheme in the U.K. After becoming international law in 2005, the trading market was predicted to reach $3 trillion in 2020. Graciela Chichilnisky (1944 – ), an Argentine American mathematical economist, and one-time director of the Columbia Consortium for Risk Management and a designer of the carbon credit text of the Kyoto Protoco: [Carbon credits are] therefore all about cash and trading – but it is also a way to a profitable and greener future. She does not elaborate on how this profitability and greenness are related. Indeed, these are meaningless soundbites, unfortunately. It is all about greed. The largest carbon traders are also the largest banks: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Bloomberg noted in an article Carbon Capitalists 2009-12-04: The banks are preparing to do with carbon what they’ve done before: design and market derivatives contracts that will help client companies hedge their price risk over the long term. They’re also ready to sell carbon-related financial products to outside investors.
Blythe Masters (1969 – ), the British fintec entrepreneur, with a bachelor’s degree in economics, who invented credit default swaps, was described by The Guardian newspaper (2008-09-20) as the woman who invented financial weapons of mass destruction. At the time, The Guardian was criticized for not giving her an opportunity to defend herself.
From 1995 to 2010, there were numerous articles advocating a carbon currency (CC). Below are some of those I have been able to find and read.
In 1995, Judith Hanna wrote Toward a single carbon currency in New Scientist, where she proposed: to set a global quota for fossil fuel combustion every year, and to share it equally between all the adults in the world.
In 2004, David G. Victor and Joshua C. House published A New Currency in the Harvard International Review. It stated: For those keen to slow global warming, the most effective actions are in the creation of strong national carbon currencies… For scholars and policymakers, the key task is to mine history for guides that are more useful. Global warming is considered an environmental issue, but its best solutions are not to be found in the canon of environmental law. Carbon’s ubiquity in the world economy demands that cost be a consideration in any regime to limit emissions. Indeed, emissions trading has been anointed king because it is the most responsive to cost. And since trading emissions for carbon is more akin to trading currency than eliminating a pollutant, policymakers should be looking at trade and finance with an eye to how carbon markets should be governed. We must anticipate the policy challenges that will arise as this bottom-up system emerges, including the governance of seams between each of the nascent trading systems, liability rules for bogus permits, and judicial cooperation. The article concludes that: after seven years of spinning wheels and wrong analogies, the international regime to control carbon is headed, albeit tentatively, down a productive path.
In 2006, UK Environment Secretary David Milibandspoke to the Audit Commission Annual Lecture and flatly stated: Imagine a country where carbon becomes a new currency. We carry bankcards that store both pounds and carbon points. When we buy electricity, gas and fuel, we use our carbon points, as well as pounds. To help reduce carbon emissions, the Government would set limits on the amount of carbon that could be used.
In 2007, Hannah Fairfield wrote When Carbon Is Currency that appeared in the New York Times . She pointedly stated “To build a carbon market, its originators must create a currency of carbon credits that participants can trade.”
PointCarbon, a consultancy, partnered with Bank of New York Mellon to assess rapidly growing carbon markets. In 2008 they published “Towards a Common Carbon Currency: Exploring the prospects for integrated global carbon markets.” This report discussed environmental and economic efficiency, in a similar context to that of Hubbert in 1933.
On 2009-11-09, the Telegraph (UK) presented an article “Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance.’” It stated: … implementing individual carbon allowances for every person will be the most effective way of meeting the targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It would involve people being issued with a unique number which they would hand over when purchasing products that contribute to their carbon footprint, such as fuel, airline tickets and electricity. Like with a bank account, a statement would be sent out each month to help people keep track of what they are using. If their “carbon account” hits zero, they would have to pay to get more credits.
On 2010-01-26, Patrick Wood published an article titled, Carbon Currency: A New Beginning for Technocracy? Global currency replacing all paper currencies, limiting manufacturing, food production and people movement. Wood discusses a proposed new Carbon Currency, designed to support a radically different economic system based on energy production and consumption, instead of price. The era of fiat currency = irredeemable paper currency, was introduced in 1971 when President Richard Nixon (1913 – 1994) decoupled the U.S. dollar from gold. Almost all other currencies eventually followed. This approach is essentially technocracy, as seen through new eyes. Both want to find a more equatable currency that reduces poverty, encourages population reduction, reduces environmental hazards and global warming, and allocates energy and goods more equitably.
Some concepts are poorly explained in the article. For example, how will a CC allocate available energy to people? The energy supply chain is dominated by a global elite, that interacts with with energy providers and energy consumers. It is unexplained why and how this elite will abdicate its role in providing energy. Related questions will have to be asked about manufacturing, agriculture and services. It is understandable that many people want to be part of the allocation process. Wood notes that local currencies could remain in play for a time, but states that they would eventually wither and be fully replaced by the [CC], much the same way that the Euro displaced individual European currencies over a period of time. Wood has obviously misunderstood how the Euro became the currency of much of Europe. It did not evolve, it replaced national currencies on 1999-01-01.
Wood does bring up some other interesting facts, including literature influenced by Technocracy, including: Aldous Huxley’s (1894 – 1963) in Brave New World (1932), especially its scientific dictatorship; H.G. Well’s (1866 – 1946)The Shape of Things to Come (1933); and, George Orwell’s (1903 – 1950) 1984 (1949).
Entropy
Technocracy expanded the use of entropy to include social entropy. This unscientific and previously unknown term, was postulated to increase social efficiency by allocating available energy then measuring subsequent outputs to find a state of equilibrium.
In Technocracy Study Course, Hubbert & Scott, on p. 238-239 show how Technocracy proposes to allocate energy. People/ adults/ citizens (sometimes)/ residents (other times)/ would receive Energy Certificates (ECs) in order to operate the economy. These would be recorded by an agency called the Distribution Sequence, and be a matter of public record. Purchases of goods or services would require an individual to surrenders ECs. This allows a single organization to produce and distribute all goods and services: With this information clearing continuously to a central headquarters we have a case exactly analogous to the control panel of a power plant, or the bridge of an ocean liner.
Technocracy admits that control of a currency results in a controls of an economy, and its overlaying political structure. Energy-based accounting could fundamentally change world economic and political systems.
I had read in some forgotten source, that Technocracy is now growing rapidly in Europe and other industrialized nations: For instance, the Network of European Technocrats was formed in 2005 as “an autonomous research and social movement that aims to explore and develop both the theory and design of technocracy.” The NET website claims to have members around the world.
This is undoubtedly an exaggeration. NET had very few members. Full disclosure: I was a member! A few insignificant organizations, even with websites, cannot create/ implement a new global energy policy. They can barely dent the old. They may gain some influence on modern energy thinking, with a focus on Hubbert’s Peak Oil Theory, introduced in 1954. Much of the ecological/ environmental movement incorporates Hubbert’s Peak Oil Theory, along with an emphasis on global warming. John Walsh concluded: The issue of peak oil impinges directly on the climate change question. (see John H. Walsh, “The Impending Twin Crisis – One Set of Solutions?, p.5.)
Technocracy likes to emphasize two key differences between price-based money and ECs: 1) money is generic to the holder while EC are individually registered to each citizen, and 2) money persists while ECs expire. This second feature would greatly hinder, if not altogether prevent, the accumulation of wealth and property.
At the start of WWII, Technocracy’s popularity dwindled as economic prosperity returned.
Smoke screens
Technocracy brings with it a number of irritations.
Technocracy’s original focus was exclusively on the North American Technate. Yet, membership was only open to American and Canadian citizens, despite this Technate having an unusual composition. In addition to Canada and USA, it also included: Greenland, Iceland, St Pierre and Miquelon, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, as well as Venezuela. One wonders if Venezuela’s massive oil wealth influenced this cartographic aberration.
When I look at the map of the North American Technate (shown in the background in the above photo), I always wonder if petroleum engineers with American citizenship will have a far too dominant influence. In a transition from a price-based to an energy-based economy, I wonder if corporate loyalty to wealthy oil companies will have an undue influence on these individuals, and their scientific reasoning.
The second problem this map brings forward is the assignment of energy costs. Take the cost of transporting perishable foods to Nunavut, and other remote areas. These are normally air-freighted in. Who will bear the energy costs? Will it be only those living in the north, or will these costs be distributed over the entire Technate? In searching Technology literature, I have not found any answers.
In a Scandinavian context, people have often been encouraged to buy locally produced foods. This meets considerable opposition. Take tomatoes. In Scandinavia the only practical way to grow tomatoes is in greenhouses. This is increasingly the way they are grown in other places, in more southerly locations. The main difference between two such places is the heating costs which, in the north, far exceed transportation costs.
At one time, I was a proponent of multispecies grazing, at least theoretically, since I have no practical knowledge of farming. This involves grazing two or even three species of livestock together on pasture land, typically sheep, cattle and goats. A diverse range of plant species encourages a diversification of grazing animals. Cattle prefer taller, coarse grasses, sheep prefer shorter species (including grasses), while goats browse woodier species. Because species’ preferences vary, multispecies grazing can work without negatively impacting animal performance or plant sustainability.
However, what I note is that local farmers do not even attempt to engage in multispecies grazing. Part of the reason can be the excessive cost of providing shelter (read: barns) for animals, which are specific to each species. In addition, it is cheaper to import feed from South America, and other distant places, than to encourage animals to use existing pasture land.
Hannah Fairfield wrote When Carbon Is Currency which appeared in the New York Times on 2007-06-06. The article reflects back on 2003, when George E. Pataki, then New York’s governor, invited governors of 10 other states from Maine to Maryland to discuss a program to cut power plant emissions. All but one of the states joined the program; Pennsylvania has observer status.
The article looks at the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, over the course of three years. The program sets a cap on the total amount of carbon that the 10 states — as a whole — can emit. Starting in 2009, each state will receive a set amount of carbon credits for its power plants, and each plant must have enough allowances to cover its total emissions at the end of three-year compliance periods.
Officials have closely watched the European Union, which started its carbon trading market in 2005. To build a carbon market, its originators must create a currency of carbon credits that participants can trade. In Europe, power companies received these credits directly and could buy or sell from one another as needed. But most companies passed the cost of the credits on to consumers even though they received them free, giving the companies windfall profits.
Participants in the United States want to avoid that problem by selling some or all of the credits at auction, with the proceeds going to state energy efficiency programs. In Europe, energy credits have been complex because of the many businesses wanting to earn offset credits. To avoid this complexity in the north-east, the program limits offsets to five categories: capture of landfill gas, curbs on sulfur hexafluoride leaks, planting of trees, reductions in methane from manure, and increased energy efficiency in buildings. Power companies can offset 3.3 percent of a plant’s total emissions from any combination of the five categories.
In discussing Carbon Currency, Technocracy often positions itself as the originator of the idea, equating it with Technocracy’s Energy Certificates (ECs). These ECs originally applied at the Technate = continental level, where they acted as an exchange mechanism. While there was discussion about a more equitable distribution of energy, there was no discussion about the consequences of CO2 emissions.
When I read this article, I discovered that New York State was one of only two jurisdictions to use a 20-year time horizon to account for the damaging effects of planet-warming gasses. Others use 100 years.
Fast forward to 2021, and New York has a new governor, Kathy Hochul (1958 – ), who wants to take less aggressive action to slash greenhouse gasses. According to her, New York’s law was the most ambitious statutory mandate requiring emissions reductions when it passed in 2019. It required emissions to be reduced by 40 % from 1990 levels by 2030 and by 85 % by 2040, with the remainder offset. It also requires zero-emissions electricity by 2050.
This legislation makes methane = the main component of natural gas, more potent than under the longer accounting timeline. Some say the shorter timeline more accurately reflects the short-term warming impact of greenhouse gasses, and the urgency around reducing emissions.
The latest U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned global action is not happening quickly enough to avert some of the most damaging potential effects of a warming planet.
New York is unique in using three factors that increase the emissions that have to be reduced: the 20-year metric, out-of-state upstream emissions from imported fuels and biogenic emissions from burning fuels like wood and ethanol.
I have an appreciation of all three measures, but will comment only on one. My irritation is sparked by Inderøy municipality allowing a wood burning heat distribution centre to be built in its most densely populated area. They did not even bother to examine the PM2.5 levels, arguing that wood is a natural product, and that burning it is, somehow, natural.
Howard Scott quotations
In the original publication of this post there was a quotations allegedly by Howard Scott cited. However, it is difficult to vouch for its authenticity. Thus, it has been removed. All of the following quotations below have been found in Wikiquote, with sources provided.
We owe nothing in our origins from Adam Smith, Ricardo, Pareto, Proudhon, Bakunin, Karl Marx, Lenin, or any of the rest of the political philosophies. We do owe a debt to J. Willard Gibbs, Nikola Tesla, Steinmetz, Mac and John Rusk, and a thousand other American chemists, engineers, scientists, and technologists. Howard Scott interviewed at Radio station KYW, 1964-11-19.
A number of engineers became so-called disciples of Frederick W. Taylor, even though he had passed on to his reward in 1915. A considerable number of engineers took up the so-called scientific management of Frederick Taylor and further embroidered it and publicized themselves as efficiency engineers and management consultants. Henry L. Gantt had been Taylor's assistant at the Midvale Steel and the Bethlehem Steel Company. Gant, Morris L. Cook, Leffingwell, Emerson, H. K. Hathaway, Frank B. Gilbreth, Harlow S. Person and C.G. Barth were among the many prominent advocates of Taylor's efficiency system with some variations. Howard Scott, History and Purpose of Technocracy in Northwest Technocrat (1965-07) p.7
Gant, Barth and others tried to start an organization, ' 'The New Machine." ' 'The New Machine" never got off the ground; all of them wrote articles and delivered papers in the engineering societies and management conferences. But their chief purpose was in creating a national image so they could sell their services to large-scale private enterprise as scientific managers and efficiency engineers who would be able to install the system that could extract more productivity from the American worker.
Howard Scott, "History and Purpose of Technocracy" in Northwest Technocrat (1965-07) p. 7
We never had any use for Taylor or any of the efficiency or scientific management crowd. They never realized that human toil was the last thing in the world you had to be efficient about; the only way to be really efficient is to eliminate it entirely, and this would have been heresy to any of the Taylor, Gant, Barth, Cook efficiency crowd.
It is sad to contemplate that men of the technical ability of the names mentioned in this paragraph were so lame in their thinking and social outlook that they missed the boat so completely. Who in hell wants to be efficient with a shovel, and what sense would there be even if you succeeded? They should have had their heads opened with a shovel; it might have been more effective. Howard Scott, "History and Purpose of Technocracy" in Northwest Technocrat (1965-07) pp.7-8
The technological concepts of Technocracy are completely beyond any of the political and social philosophies, from Adam Smith, Ricardo, Proudhon, Bakunin, Karl Marx, Lenin and various other promulgators of rightist and leftist political philosophies. Howard Scott, "History and Purpose of Technocracy" in Northwest Technocrat (1965-07) p. 23
Quotes about Howard Scott
Technocracy originated in the winter of 1918-19 when Howard Scott formed a group of scientists, engineers, and economists that became known as the Technical Alliance--a research organization. Howard Scott was chief engineer of this group. The Alliance lasted about fourteen years. Its membership embraced many of America's top scientists and engineers, including such personalities as: Frederick Ackerman, architect; Leland Olds, statistician; Thorstein Veblen, economist; L. K. Comstock, electrical engineer, and Charles Steinmetz. It conducted what became known as the famous 'Energy Survey of North America.' Out of the survey, and under the guiding genius of Howard Scott, there emerged a completely new way of looking at life and human affairs. The social assets and liabilities (in a physical sense) of North America were laid bare for the first time. The social trends and tendencies were analyzed scientifically and for the first time in history a continental area (North America) had a glimpse of its future, or at least of the broad alternatives.Technocrat (1976), Nr. 257-271
The technocrats made a believable case for a kind of technological utopia, but their asking price was too high. The idea of political democracy still represented a stronger ideal than technological elitism. In the end, critics believed that the socially desirable goals that technology made possible could be achieved without the sacrifice of existing institutions and values and without incurring the apocalypse that technocracy predicted. William E. Aikin, Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocracy Movement 1900-1941, University of California Press (1977), p. 150.
Technocracy's heyday lasted only from June 16, 1932, when the New York Times became the first influential press organ to report its activities, until January 13, 1933, when Scott, attempting to silence his critics, delivered what some critics called a confusing, and uninspiring address on a well-publicized nationwide radio hookup.Howard P. Segal, Technological Utopianism in American Culture, Syracuse University Press(2005), p. 123.
Origins
This post has been in development since about 2010, as anyone can see from the numerous quotations dated immediately prior to this year. The topic has been messy to work with, mainly because content would disappear from sites, and only sometimes reappear on other sites. With hindsight, I note that I should have made copies of all of the content. I didn’t, and my time machine has been ineffective in bringing me back to prior events.
Originally, there were two organizations representing Technocracy in North America: Technocracy, Inc., located for most of my life at 2475 Harksell Road, Ferndale, Washington, 98248. There were also American branches in Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, California. Earlier, there were other branches, particularly along the American east coast. However, these had been disbanded by the time I took an interest. Thus, it always appeared to me as a left-coast phenomenon. Currently, the head office appears to be located in a post office box, at Huntington Beach, California. It’s website can be found at www.technocracyinc.org to which www.technocracy.org redirects.
A sister organization in Canada, had its head offices in Vancouver, British Columbia, about 70 km north-west of Ferndale. I remember Technocracy from my childhood, especially when taking the Pacific Stage Lines bus from New Westminster to downtown Vancouver along Kingsway. Just after crossing the boundary from Burnaby into Vancouver, on the south (odd-numbered) side of the 3700-block Kingsway, one encountered a large monad (yin-yang) sign in red and grey, proclaiming Technocracy’s Canadian headquarters. That block was redeveloped in 1976, when the Telus boot, was built. This boot was an unusually shaped office tower that, for a period, became the head office of Telus, previously known as the British Columbia telephone company.
Other signs of Technocracy’s presence in Vancouver were its grey cars, with red detailing. Presumably, these were privately owned vehicles. However, they were marked with an identification number. Section numbers were important in Technocracy. Most began with 123. The section number for Vancouver was 12349, which combined longitude 123 West with latitude 49 North. Portland used 12342.
At some point the Canadian headquarters moved to 2946 272nd Street, Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada V4W 3R4. This is about 40 km away from Ferndale, navigating the border at Blaine, Washington/ Douglas, British Columbia. The direct line distance is only about 20 km. At one time, the Vancouver Technocracy website could be found at: www.technocracyvan.ca. It no longer exists.
Publication of this weblog post has been postponed numerous times, most recently from 2023-03-11 at 12:00 to 2024-03-09 at 12:00. After this last postponement, I told myself that if this post needed to be postponed further, it would never be published!
This weblog post came about because of an email from my bank. They told me that I could not expect to have my Mastercard renewed, unless I used it. So, the next time I went shopping at my local hardware store, I took out my Mastercard, told the cashier – a person I have known for over 35 years – that I was uncertain if the pin code would work, then proceeded to buy a manageable sum of necessities, with the card. It worked. The cashier told me that his wife had also had to use her Mastercard, for the same reason.
This weblog post looks at our banking and related experiences in Norway, with a few additional comments about banking in Canada, over the past forty years. I have had to consult with Trish to see if she remembers the same details as I do. This has resulted in some changes, hopefully corrections.
When we first arrived in Molde, Norway in 1980, we opened a bank account at the first bank we encountered, Forretningsbanken = The Business Bank, located beside the bus station. There was no major problems opening an account, and we were able to deposit our savings, and withdraw them as required. We experienced it as very similar to a Canadian bank. One difference was the lack of orderly queues, one would find in Canada. People would hang around, possibly chatting to friends. Yet, everyone would know their position in this most casual of queues and wait for their opening to approach a teller. Most often, we would take cash out from our account, then visit the stores to buy our groceries or other necessities, paying for them in cash.
In these early years, everything looked expensive. We would typically visit each of the five grocery stores in downtown Molde, starting at the eastern side of town, then work our way westwards, when we reached the co-op at the western end, we would buy everything on our shopping list at the store where they were cheapest, ending up at the eastern most store at the eastern end of the bus terminal. We would then take our bus home.
As students, we were allowed to work part-time during the school year, and full-time in the summer. Our earnings were automatically deposited into our bank account. This is required procedure. All employers are required by law to deposit all wages into a bank account. Cash payments are not allowed. We also acquired cheques/ checks for other payments, but realized that the preferred method of payment was to giro funds. Soon, we opened a savings account at the local post office. It was a bit more complex, but manageable, and had a better giro system.
After our first summer of working at the local slaughterhouse, we had saved up enough money to buy our first luxury purchase, a radio. We started work at 8:00, and finished at 15:30, then walked to the centre of Molde, arriving at about 16:00. By that time, all of the specialty stores had closed. Only the grocery stores remained open, until 16:30. Thus, we decided to take a trip to downtown Molde on a saturday. We were disappointed because, during the summer, the store (singular) selling radios was only open monday to friday.
At one point we had visitors from America. They had come with an American Express card, intending to use it to pay for everything. This was not yet an acceptable payment method in Norway. The closest place that would accept their card was in Åndalnes, 57 km from Molde. They had to take a bus to get there and back, using a day in the process.
When we moved north to Bodø in 1985, we were a bit more selective about where we opened a bank account. Now, we had full-time employment and money was coming into our account every month. Money was also flowing out of our account, in the form of rental payments for our accommodation. We also had to withdraw cash to make smaller payments, for groceries, and other expenditures. Larger payments, such as rents involved use of giros.
Soon, we experienced a major change. We were issued Visa debit cards. The fun part was that we (and everyone else in Norway) were paid to use the cards. This lasted for up to several months! Stores started to accept cards for payment. Soon, human tellers were less often used, replaced by minibanks, the Norwegian word for automatic telling machines (ATMs), found at the entrance of most banks. This became the new norm of how we obtained cash. Yes, minibanks appeared in Norway at four banks in Oslo in 1970, but they differed considerably from those used later. ATMs that relied on bank cards and pin numbers first appeared in 1978.
The next step in our integration into Norway came in 1986. We talked to a loans’ officer and asked to borrow most of the money needed to buy a new car. Obviously, the person had done some homework. It took us about five minutes to secure the loan, which was for about NOK 100 000, or six months wages for one person, at the time. The money was deposited into our account on the agreed date, and we were able to pay for our new 4WD Subaru Justy, some days later.
The car loan was not paid off before we made our last move, to Inderøy, in 1988. So we had to find a new way of making a loan payment. It was not difficult. We just had to giro the money. In Inderøy we opened savings and chequing accounts at the local Savings Bank. This bank later became part of a larger, regional bank. At the end of 1990, we arranged for a mortgage on a house. Once again, there was no problem borrowing the money. The house was mortgaged, with the bank holding the house as collateral, we made a substantial down payment, and we were both employed, with regular income. The mortgage also came with life insurance, so that if one of us should die, the principal would be paid off, automatically, and the survivor would be debt free. This loan was paid off in about seven years, although the amount of interest paid was almost equal to the principal. The interest rates were about 14.5% at the time. That was the down side. The up side was that housing prices were exceptionally low. We still live in the same house.
At one time, the banks were encouraging people to invest in funds. Their financial experts would, for a fee, find the most suitable stocks to invest in, and we would have equity based on their competence. We decided to try it, with a minimum investment. After a couple of years, almost all value was lost. We stopped the experiment. A few years later, people were allowed to save a portion of their income each year, tax free, and to withdraw it and pay taxes on it, over a ten year period, after retirement. With the amount I have saved this increases my pension by 2 – 3 % a month. I think this pension ends when I turn 77. Should I die before then, the residual is turned over to my estate.
Perhaps the greatest irritation with using the banking system in Norway has been the need to provide identification to the banks. We identify ourselves whenever we open an account, but the bank fails to record it, so some years later we have to go through the identification process again. They claim this is to prevent money laundering. I am certain that anyone seriously involved in illegal banking activities has all of their papers in order, so that it is only innocent people that have to ride this identification treadmill. This last happened to us in 2021. We had to drive to a place we do not otherwise visit, find a parking space, walk to the outer door of the office, contact the person we wanted to meet by phone, wait for that person to let us into the office, present our ID, wait for it to be photocopied, recover it, then leave.
For several years, we had a safety deposit box at the bank to hold our valuable possessions. However, when the local bank moved to a new and smaller location, those boxes became unavailable. The solution was to buy a safe. It is mainly used to hold documents, such as birth certificates and passports. Sorry, there is no money, gold or diamonds in it!
For the past several years, we have not used cash. I remember one trip to Sweden where we attempted to buy lunch. The person running the eatery told us he didn’t have a card reader, but gave us direction to a bank where we could withdraw funds. We thanked him for the information, and cancelled our order. We were not going to contribute to criminal activity. Any legitimate company can buy or rent a card reader. It is one of the costs of doing business.
Originally, I dated the end of cash in Norway to the value-transport guards’ strike that lasted 78 days from 2020-09-16 to 2020-12-03. This resulted in the banks being unable to fill their minibanks. Inderøy had a empty/ non-functioning minibank for approximately five weeks. In addition, merchants could not use the night-deposit system. At the local grocery stores, it has always been possible to add an additional amount to one’s card payment and receive cash back, but I don’t think this worked optimally during the strike.
Then I had to reconsider my prophecy. Just before Constitution Day, 2022-05-17, card terminals throughout Norway became inoperative for hours. Then, on 2022-09-02, Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl announced a need to clarify the rules and strengthen the consumer’s right to cash payment, with companies having to make provision for cash payments during emergencies, including internet and electrical outages. Customers in Norway will have the right to pay with cash in all fixed business premises where traders sell goods and services to the public. That includes all shops, restaurants and service providers in Norway, but excludes pop-up shops, food trucks and similar operations.
If anyone is expecting Norwegians to use an armoured vehicle to transport cash, they will be disappointed. I think the vehicles are just ordinary vans, that have a safe-like structure bolted in. If there is an attempt to break in, bills will be stained with a red dye, making them unusable. Armed guards? Sorry! Not even the police are armed, although they have sealed weapons locked away in their patrol cars, should they be needed. However, they must obtain permission to unseal them. There was an experiment some years ago, where the police were armed, but there were just too many incidents where the police injured/ shot themselves.
For people interested in bank robberies, Norway’s most famous and largest robbery happened on 2004-04-05, at the NOKAS = Norsk kantantservice AS = Norwegian Cash Service Limited, depot in Stavanger. Thirteen perpetrators escaped with 57.4 million kroner = US$ 10 million, in Norwegian and foreign currencies, making it Norway’s largest-ever robbery. NOK 51 million has still not been recovered. One police officer was killed in the incident. All of the perpetrators received prison sentences totaling 208 years in prison, the longest one being 21 years.
Store hours in Norway in 2024, are very different from 1980. Our co-op now opens at 7:00 in the morning, and closes at 23:00 at night. In general, stores are closed on sundays. This does not apply for energy stations (the new name for gas stations, because they often include high-speed DC EV chargers) and their kiosks, and grocery stores, which can have an area up to 100 m2 open. We no longer have post offices. These have been replaced by post in the store centres, which are open the same hours as their host stores. For us, this is at the co-op. These provide all the same services that were once provided by post office.
Despite the experience of the Americans with their American Express card in the 1980s, times have changed. When we travel abroad we rely on our bank cards, Mastercard and Visa. They work in Canada, USA and throughout the EU (including Sweden), and Norway (a country that is not in the EU). We always purchase in the local currency, allowing our own bank to profit from the difference in exchange rates. Our bank assures us that they are cheaper than anyone else. We never withdraw cash at airports. When asked, typically in the US, if I want to pay in Norwegian crowns, I deliberately stare as deeply as possible into the eyes of the questioner. If they don’t look contrite enough I will ask them: What sort of fool do you take me for? Then I will tell them: Just take it out in American funds. I then check my receipt, without moving so that the person cannot assist the next person in the queue, until I am satisfied. Norwegian airports have billboards everywhere advising everyone to pay in local funds.
I think we have 3 x NOK 10 coins in cash, stored in Buzz, our car. We only need one, but sometimes people forget, and keep a coin or two in their pockets. One of these is used to feed a buggy at the shopping centre in Steinkjer, about 35 km north of our house. When we return the buggy, we get the coin back. Otherwise there is no need for cash.
The latest transformation has been Vipps, which is an online payment method on our handheld devices = Asus Zenfone 9 smartphones. We use this to buy eggs at a local farm, to pay for coffee at the small shopping centre in Straumen, the capital of Inderøy. I have even used it to buy a CNC machine from another person. There are any number of worthy causes that attempt to collect money during the year. Even they have had to give up collecting cash. Now, the only thing they do is go around to houses giving out pieces of paper with their Vipps number. Not everyone wants to use Vipps. The local farm where we buy milk has a card reader, and prefers us to use a bank card.
We have not entered a bank for years, because everything is done online. Just before the start of 2018, we, and almost everyone else in our neighbourhood, had a fibre optic cable installed to the house. This improved the speed and reliability of the internet. While we also have WiFi, many of the machines are connected with Ethernet cables. My accountant (Trish) regularly uses bank transfers to pay any invoices. This is usually done using a computer, with a screen large enough to read the fine print! I also make some regular payments internationally using Paypal, from a computer, with an even bigger screen, making the print almost as legible.
Keyboard propaganda. We feel comfortable using most computers, since both of us studied computer science from the mid 1970s, and had to put up with non-ergonomic keyboards, as students. From my perspective, the key to the successful use of multiple computers, is to use keyboards with the same feel, especially having the laptop and desktop keyboards match each other. While we both use Acer Swift 3 laptops with ISO nordic keyboards, Trish’s Logitech MX keys mini ISO nordic keyboard for her desktop machine is better matched than my desktop keyboard, a Logitech K860 Ergo. In terms of desktop keyboards, I have a lifetime supply (= 5), including a similar MX keys mini ISO nordic keyboard, for use when the current one wears out, possibly as early as 2030.
Increasingly, I prefer to buy things online. When we buy something from an online store, there are usually a number of payment options, including credit cards (Mastercard) or debit cards (Visa) or Vipps or, heaven forbid, delaying payment for six months, but having to pay interest. Increasingly, I use Vipps, because it eliminates a number of steps in the purchasing process. Vipps knows where I live, and any purchased goods are sent there, unless I specify something different. The amount of the purchase is not deducted from my account, until the goods are sent.
Depending on what we purchase online, there are several ways in which the product can be delivered. Posten and Bring, owned by the Norwegian post office, PostNord, owned by the Danish and Swedish post offices, and a service delivering paper newspapers, run by Schibsted ASA, a Norwegian media company. Most small packages, such as books, are delivered to our postbox. Larger, heavier materials can be delivered to our front door, or picked up at our local co-op. The third option is to have the product delivered to a Pakkeboks = Package box, located outside a store (see above photo). A box can only be opened by customer’s smartphone, when the customer is beside the Pakkeboks. In 2023, we encountered similar boxes in Iceland.
So far there has not been much mention of cheques. That is because, they have not been used in Norway since 1992! We do have cheques for our Canadian chequing account, but it always feels unsafe to use them. If people want us to transfer money to them, we ask them to provide us with an account number so that we can transfer the money directly.
Wikipedia tells us: In Norway, credit scoring services are provided by three credit scoring agencies: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian and Lindorff Decision. Credit scoring is based on publicly available information such as demographic data, tax returns, taxable income and any Betalingsanmerkning (non-payment records) that might be registered on the credit-scored individual. Upon being scored, an individual will receive a notice (written or by e-mail) from the scoring agency stating who performed the credit score as well as any information provided in the score. In addition, many credit institutions use custom scorecards based on any number of parameters. Credit scores range between 300 and 999.
Orthography = a set of conventions for writing a language, including: spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word boundaries, emphasis and punctuation. Yes, I have been influenced by over 40 years of living in Norway. Despite knowing (Canadian) English conventions, at least as they existed in 1980, I choose to subvert some of them. One of my more recent changes is a refusal to use capital letters when writing the names of weekdays and months. My spelling mostly follows British English, with a few American quirks added.
Flaxwood is the second guitar manufacturer with a post on this weblog. The first one was about the Parker Fly. Flaxwood was founded in 2005 following the construction of a guitar prototype developed by Veijo Rautia, in 2003, and a research project about natural fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites, led by Heikki Koivurova, an industrial designer. The company is located in Joensuu city/ municipality in North Karelia, Finland, close to the Russian border.
Kareline FLX is the name of the composite material used. It is claimed that this is wood fibre, from recycled northern spruce, mixed with a thermoplastic bonding agent. The semi-liquid mixture is injection moulded into shape with the fibres set in a predetermined direction. This results in a uniform material with a density of 1.2 g/cm³ = 1.2 kg/litre = 1200 kg/m³. Yes, it is 20% heavier than water, for the same volume. It is impervious to humidity and temperature changes, and can be recycled. What I have difficulty understanding is its name. Flax usually refers to, Linum usitatissimum, a domesticated flowing plant processed and used as a textile, linen, and an oil, linseed oil. It is derived from a wild species Linum bienne, known as pale flax.
The production process is patented. It is a method for manufacturing guitars or related musical instrument of which at least one part is manufactured from a thermoplastic polymer. In particular, the plastic is made by adding natural fibres to a thermoplastic polymer followed by injection moulding so that the natural fibres are oriented in a specific certain direction.
Additional information about the patent has been supplied by Google which allows for a document download. This includes the anticipated patent expiration, immediately after the publication of this weblog post, on 2024-02-27.
Flaxwood originally produced only fully assembled guitars. Molded parts would be shaped with the required cavities, pockets, joints and holes. They would then be assembled and finished by hand using traditional tools. Normally, these offer 22 medium jumbo frets and a 25.5″ scale length. Guitars are assigned a Finnish name representing its main personality/ characteristics.
In 2011, they started to make and sell components. bolt-on guitar necks, guitar blanks and fingerboard blanks for bowed string instruments.
The photograph at the beginning of this post shows a Flaxwood 3LP-T Laine. It is the model that comes closest to a Fender Stratocaster. Laine = wave, in Finnish. The guitar combines Seymour Duncan lipstick pickups with a Schaller LP Tremolo. A blender pot mixes signals from the neck pickup with the bridge pickup.
Guitars offer lots of opportunity for restorations, as well as makeovers. Some changes may be small, cheap and easy; other may be comprehensive, expensive and require specialist skills, typically soldering. Regardless, the most important changes are those that allow the musician to play more in keeping with her/his spirit.
This weblog post is a continuation of Instrument hits (1956 – 1969).
These two weblog post were conceived of while watching/ listening to yet another version of Jan Hammer’s (1948 – ) Crockett’s theme (1986). Culture affects listening habits, and musical preferences. Crockett’s theme was much more popular in Europe than it was in USA. In contrast, the Miami Vice theme (1985) was not, and still is not, especially popular in Europe. Yet, it was the most recent instrumental #1 for twenty-eight years on the Billboard Hot 100 in USA from 1985 until 2013. In 2013, Harlem Shake attained the #1 position.
By the 1970s instrumentals were no longer main-stream.
Santana, Soul Sacrifice (1969)
Santana was the name of a band, that was more than guitarist Carlos Santana (1947 – ). Bass guitarist David Brown (1947 – 2000), percussionist Marcus Malone (1944 – 2021), keyboardist Gregg Rolie (1947 – ) as well as Carlos Santana are all listed as composers of Soul Sacrifice.
Woodstock festival was perhaps the first time boomers managed to create musical history. This instrumental closed Santana’s performance at Woodstock. According to legend, they were the only performers who had not released an album. The track that appears on their album, Santana, was recorded several months before, but also released after Woodstock, in August 1969.
Pink Floyd, One of These Days (1971)
Many commentators regard Pink Floyd’s On The Run, from from the Dark Side of the Moon (1973) as the bands best instrumental. Unfortunately, there are too many human sounds for me to consider it an instrumental piece. On the version I listen to, One of These Days meets my criteria for an instrumental. It opens the album Meddle, where the drumming of Nick Mason (1944 – ) is prominent. Unfortunately, on the album he speaks a totally unnecessary and violent line: One of these days, I’m going to cut you into little pieces. On my preferred version this line is missing.
Miles Davis (1926 – 1991), Right Off (1971)
This work is often included on lists of the best popular music instrumentals. As I age, I have less tolerance for sounds produced by trumpets. They are too piercing for aging ears. One possible reason for its inclusion on these lists, is that it originally defied classification, or was enjoyed by people who appreciated multiple classifications. Thus, some stated it was neither rock nor jazz, not some intermediate state between the two, but hopping between both. Later, some people tried to call this fusion, sometimes adding rock or jazz or both or something else as modifiers. One commentator described it as being ahead of its time. I always find this particular comment irritating, because it implies that something is too advanced or modern to be understood or appreciated.
This instrumental appear on an album titled, Jack Johnson. It was a tribute to Johnson (1878 – 1946) the first African American heavyweight champion, who was given the title in 1908. Originally, the music was written to be a score for a documentary about Johnson’s life.
The Edgar Winter (1946 – ) Group, Frankenstein (1973)
Sometimes a musical piece is not meant to entertain, but to promote the capabilities of the performing musicians. This has always been my opinion of Frankenstein. Members of the group perform, but fail to communicate. I do not listen to music to be impressed, but to relax. This applies to Winter on his ARP 2600 synthesizer and saxophone. Equally, I feel that the sidemen, Ronnie Montrose on guitar and Dan Hartman on bass, flaunt their abilities, but fail to entertain listeners. I am amazed that this instrumental reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It confirms an opinion that popularity is not a reliable indicator of quality.
The Allman Brothers Band, Jessica (1973)
Jessica has been a part of late 20th century popular visual culture. In general, the Allman brothers version was the intro for Top Gear, the BBC automotive program, from 1977 to 1998 (series 39). In 1998 (series 40) a new, more electronic version was used as an intro, produced by Hansen Bass. In 2002, yet another, still newer version of Jessica was used, composed by Christian Henson. It was faster and upbeat compared to the original Allman Brothers version, but less electronic, compared to the Hansen Bass’ version. The original outro was Elton John’s Out of the Blue, performed by Graham Smith, son of Derek Smith, Top Gear’s original producer. Later, other songs, unique to every episode, replaced this. In 2002, an arrangement of Jessica, similar to Bass’ version, was used for the outro. Jessica was also used in the baseball film, Field of Dreams (1989).
The Allman Brothers Band was started in 1969 by Duane (1946 – 1971) and Gregg (1947 – 2017) Allman, guitarist Dickey Betts (1943 – ), bassist Berry Oakley (1948 – 1972), drummer Butch Trucks (1947 – 2017) and percussionist Jamoe Johnson (1944 – ). The band was restarted in 1973, after Duane’s and Berry’s deaths in separate motorcycle crashes.
Jessica was composed by Betts and, to a lesser degree, by replacement guitarist Les Dudek (1952 – ). Jessica was first released on the band’s 1973 album Brothers and Sisters. Ramblin’ Man, was another track on this album which marked the beginning of a new era for the Allman Brothers Band. Jessica is named for Jessica Betts, the daughter of Dickey Betts and Sandy Bluesky. Betts also composed a song for his wife and Jessica’s mother called Bluesky.
David Bowie (1947 – 2016), Speed of Life (1977)
Listening to the opening track on Bowie’s album Low, I remember waiting for the lyrics to begin. There were none. Slowly, as the piece progressed, I began to listen to and appreciate the synths and faintly strange drum beats. It was a departure from Bowie’s previous style, but more suiting my evolving musical taste. In addition to an ARP synthesizer, David Bowie played a Chamberlin, a keyboard instrument that was a precursor to the Mellotron, developed by Harry Chamberlin (? – 1986) from 1949 to 1956. Bowie also acted as writer and producer. Carlos Alomar (1951 – ) played rhythm guitar. Dennis Davis (1951 – 2016) played percussion. George Murray played bass guitar. Roy Young played piano. Tony Visconti (1944 – ) and Ray Staff had various engineering and production duties.
Rush, La Villa Strangiato (1978)
Many Rush fans believe La Villa Strangiato is the band’s masterpiece. Depending on the version, it is about ten minutes long, and is designed to highlight each member of the three-piece band. The work was composed by guitarist Alex Lifeson, of Serbian ancestry, born Aleksandar Živojinović (1953 – ) in Fernie, British Columbia. It also features bassist Geddy Lee (Weinrib, 1953 – ) and drummer Neil Peart (1952 – 2020).
Rush, YYZ (1981)
Another highly regarded work by Rush is YYZ. Morse code is a way to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse (1791 – 1872). Rush rendered the International Air Transport Association (IATA) airport code for Toronto’s main airport (YYZ) into Morse code then transposed it across several instruments to work through the melody.
An Aside: Canadians sometimes speak in IATA three-letter codes for airports. I am not certain if this is a deliberate attempt to prevent Americans from understanding, or if that is just a side effect. Most Canadian airports begin with Y. Crossing the country: YPR = Prince Rupert; YYJ = Victoria; YVR = Vancouver;YXX = Abbotsford = YVR’s alternative airport; YKA = Kamloops; YLW = Kelowna = the airport where I landed on my first flight, from YVR, to be baptized at St Michael and All Angels, a cathedral since 1987; YXS = Prince George; YYC = Calgary; YWG = Winnipeg; YQG = Windsor; YYZ = Toronto; YOW = Ottawa; YUL = Montreal, although older people might be inclined to say YMX; YHZ = Halifax; and YYT = Saint John’s. I think those are all of the ones I am expected to know.
The Alan Parsons Project, Sirius (1982)
In its original form, this is one of the shortest instrumentals presented here, lasting less than two minutes. This is the opening track on the Eye in the Sky album and leads to the Eye in the Sky track, which has vocals. Of course, there is an extended version of Sirius, lasting 3.5 minutes.
The Alan Parson’s Project lasted from 1975 to 1990. It involved audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons (1948 – ) and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson (1945 – 2009). Throughout its existence, a long list of studio musicians also participated in the making of tracks.
Jan Hammer (1948 – ), Miami Vice Theme (1985) and Crockett’s Theme (1986).
The Miami Vice theme was the last #1 instrumental hit, until Harlem Shake reached that position in 2013. This is the track preferred by North Americans. In contrast, Crockett’s Theme is preferred in Europe. The version I prefer best, is performed by Amadeusz Małkowski (? – ), better known as Madis, a Krakow-born Polish composer and electronic music producer whose music is characterized by 21st century sounds combined with 20th century electronics. This performance contains two works. 0:00 – 3:15 Nightwalk (2018), written, composed and performed by Madis. 3:15 – 6:12 Crockett’s Theme (1986), written by Jan Hammer, but performed by Madis.
The hardware used by Madis includes: Roland D-50, Waldorf Blofeld, Novation Ultranova, Korg Microkorg, Akai APC40 MK2, Native Instruments Maschine MK2, Mackie ProFX 12, and TC Electronics M350. Software is Ableton Live 9.
Joe Satriani (1956 – ), Always with Me, Always with You (1989)
Satriani is regarded as a good guitarist, technically. Some might want to change the adjective from good to great, possibly even to outstanding. Despite this, he has often worked backing up more prominent musicians. This results in Joe the salesman, endorsing Ibanez guitars, Marshall amplifiers, somebody else’s pickup or effect pedal. Unfortunately, the guitar playing on the video of this instrumental shouts fake. He is playing an electric guitar without any obvious source of power.
Eric Johnson (1954 – ), Cliffs of Dover (1990)
YouTube user, AlandFelger wrote a comment about this track: … when I started learning guitar, I thought I’d never be able to play this song. 10 years later, I realized that I was correct.
Don’t worry AlandFelger, you don’t have to be technically sophisticated, or even competent, to make a musical impact. It is your soul that is important. This track performed by Eric Johnson, much like Frankenstein, performed by the Edgar Winter Group, involves too much ego.
Mr Oizo, Flat Beat (1999)
Flat Beat was originally the music for an advertising campaign for Levis-Staprest. The original commercial is here. Both it and a later music video were made by Quentin Dupieux (1974 – ) ably assisted by puppet Flat Eric. Flat Eric was made at Jim Henson’s (1936 – 1990) Creature Shop. Mr Oizo is Dupieux’s stage name, used for musical productions. As usual, I appreciate the video more than the audio alone. It was filmed in an old apartment near Versailles . Pushed by the success of ads in Europe, Flat Beat emerged three weeks later, as a #1 hit in key European territories, selling almost 4 milllions CDs and LPs. Sometimes, music isn’t everything, as Flat Eric demonstrates here.
Howard Shore (1946 – ), Concerning Hobbits (2001)
I have showed reluctance to include large budget orchestral works on this list, but include this one exception from Canadian film composer Howard Shore. Concerning Hobbits is from The Fellowship of the Ring. The version I prefer avoids a voice-over and other irritations from the film. It shows a rustic Middle Earth, that is only plausible in a film. Wikipedia provides an enjoyable article about the work.
My reluctance to include works that involve large orchestras is based on social ideals, especially that in the 21st century it should be possible for anyone to create songs in bedroom studios. In such an environment, and with the investment in headphones, there is no need for budding composers to subject their families or themselves to intensive sound levels.
On Piano Day, this year on 2024-03-28, the 88th day of the year, in honour of the standard piano keyboard, sound sampling will be discussed with reference to Pianobook, a company started by Christian Henson, and based on volunteer contributions. Its purpose is to create and share free instrument samples. Currently, 1413 samples are available.
Explosions in the Sky, First Breath After Coma (2003)
The band, founded in 1999 in Austin, Texas, was originally called Breaker Morant, then changed its name, almost immediately, to Explosions in the Sky. It consists of Chris Hrasky playing drums; Michael James playing guitar, bass guitar and keyboards; Munaf Rayani playing guitar, keyboards and percussion; and, Mark Smith playing guitar and keyboards.
I managed to listen to a musical version of this track for several seconds before I sought out something more satisfying. I found it in a version that includes scenes from a Ron Fricke (1953 – ) film, Baraka (1992). This film is described as purely cinematic non-verbal non-narrative. Baraka = بركة (Arabic) = blessing, is found in Islamic mysticism, particularly Sufism. It is a spiritual presence that begins with God and flows outward.
Wikipedia tells us that Baraka is a documentary film with no narrative or voice-over. It explores themes via a compilation of natural events, life, human activities and technological phenomena shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period. It has a running time of 97 minutes.
Baauer = Harry Bauer Rodrigues (1989- ), Harlem Shake (2013)
The original Harlem Shake was a dance. This was followed by a YouTube meme, which ignited interest in an instrumental, that became a Billboard #1 hit. In this section, we are going to let Wikipedia provide a lot of the detail, without further credit.
The Harlem shake is a style of hip-hop dance and is characterized by jerky arm and shoulder movements in time to music, as shown here. The dance was created by Harlem resident Albert Boyce = Al B (1963 – 2006) in 1981, and was initially called The Albee or The Al B. The dance became mainstream in 2001 with the release of the music video for Let’s Get It by G. Dep. The video featured children performing the dance. The dance became known as the Harlem Shake as its prominence grew beyond the neighborhood.
In 2013-02, a song named Harlem Shake (due to a sampled line referring to the dance) went viral and became an Internet meme after featuring in a YouTube video by DizastaMusic. This song was originally released by Baauer in 2012-05-22. Note: The dance that is done on the internet as a meme is not the original Harlem Shake.
Baauer = Harry Rodriques recorded the work in his bedroom studio in Brooklyn, New York. His goal was to record a high-pitched, Dutch house synthesizer over a hip hop track and make it stand out by adding a variety of peculiar sounds. Some of these sounds were produced by Héctor Delgado (1979 – ), Jayson Musson (1977 -) and Kurt Hunte (? – ) who are also listed as songwriters, mainly because their works were sampled.
Dutch House is a subgenre of electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the Netherlands in the early 2000s. It uses a 4/4 beat and a heavy bass at about 128 beats per minute. There is also a lot of filtering to pump the bassline. Sidechain compression creates the sound of breathing from drums. These techniques provide a Hi-NRG = high-energy distinctive sound.
Modern Solutions
Sometimes, lyrics are the most dissatisfying part of a recording, adding stress rather than joy to listening. Yet, there may not be anything wrong with the instrumental music backing the lyrics.
Such is the case for me with Billy Corgan’s (1967 – ) singing on Disarm, from the Siamese Dream album, released by The Smashing Pumpkins, in 1993. It’s music video, directed by Jake Scott (1965 – ), is innocent enough. Most sequences are in black and white, showing band members floating. There are also colour sequences of a young boy playing outside. It appeared on MTV in early 1994, and was placed into heavy rotation for a month, during a time period that predates play on demand.
My solution is to find instrumental versions of such works. I often do this by searching YouTube, listing the musicians, and the track, then adding instrumental. I searched with: The Smashing Pumpkins, Disarm, instrumental. When the results can back, Betheriel’s version of Disarm was at the top of the list. It was released on 2023-02-03, and has been played 2764 times, and received 50 likes.
Betheriel YouTube channel has about 2 430 subscribers and 9 280 instrumental only videos. These have been seen 982 205 times, as this is being written.
Another approach, being considered for its own web log post, involves do it yourself (DIY) vocals removal. There are numerous sites offering this service, many claiming to use artificial intelligence to assist. Typical instructions involve: 1) Uploading an audio file; 2) Instructing the site to remove vocals from the music; 3) Download the resulting extracted file; 4) Reviewing and saving the extracted instrumental track.
Many of these services also allow people to separate and create a separate vocal track. These services are especially popular with karaoke enthusiasts.
A concluding thought: Yes, there are female instrumentalists! This post took shape while I was making a series about women musicians published at the rate of one a month in 2021. I shunted notable tracks by male musicians to this and a couple of other weblog drafts. Since then, I have reflected on the nature of instrumental popular music, and wondered if men feel more comfortable performing tracks without words, while women feel more comfortable using words.
During the 1950s and 1960s, music became increasingly available. It could be heard on jukeboxes in cafes and elsewhere, on radios and on phonographs/ record players, most often at home. People started to pay attention to the ranking of individual pieces of popular music. Allowances allowed young people to buy recorded music, typically: 12-inch 33+1⁄3 rpm records with a microgroove specification, made of vinyl = vinyl chloride acetate. These were first released in 1948. Also popular were 7-inch 45 rpm records, first released in 1949. These were small, durable disks that offered high fidelity, effectively replacing 78 rpm shellac discs.
Ranking of record popularity owes much to Billboard, a company with its origins in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. It was starting on 1894-11-01 by William Donaldson (1864 – 1925) and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. After the magazine ran into financial difficulties in 1900, Donaldson bought out Hennegan’s interests for $500.
Early in the 20th century, it focused on circuses, fairs and burlesque shows. By 1955, there were three charts that measured song metrics: Best Sellers in Stores, started in 1940, measured the biggest selling singles in retail stores; Most Played by Jockeys ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations; Most Played in Jukeboxes, was especially important to measure song popularity among younger listeners, as many radio stations avoided music popular with the young. These three coalesced into the Hot 100, starting 1955-11-12.
The following list does not include all instrumentals to have reached #1, on a Billboard chart or anywhere else. It is extremely personal, which means that it excludes Percy Faith and Lawrence Welk as well as many others! It is probably somewhat inconsistent. Some listeners may regard some pieces as borderline instrumental, because some of these include sound effects or chants. Think, Wipe Out! My opinion is that all of the works here are instrumental, because they avoid verses and choruses, but may include the odd human utterance.
Bill Doggett (1916-1996), Honky Tonk, Part 1 & 2 (1956)
This track sold four million copies, reaching No. 1 on Billboad’s rhythm and blues (R&B) and No. 2 Pop(ular music). It was written by organist Bill Doggett (1916-1995), guitarist Billy Butler (1924-1991), saxophonist/ flautist Clifford Scott (1928-1993) and percussionist Berisford (Shep) Shepard (1917-2018). Guitar solos are dominant in Part 1, but it is the saxophone that dominates part 2. Many people have commented on the opening of the track, its handclaps and yells and danceable beat. In addition to the original, there is a version by the Beach Boys in 1963, as well as a remastered version by them from 2001. Another significant version was made by James Brown (1933-2006) in 1972.
Duane Eddy (1938- ), Moovin’ n Groovin’ (1957)
As Eddy’s first single, this instrumental made a considerable impact. The opening refrain is recognizable because of its inclusion in the Beach Boy’s Surfin’ Safari (1962). The title is also used in Bobby Darin’s (1936-1973) Splish Splash (1958). Eddy used his guitar’s bass strings to produce a low, reverberating, twangy sound. Numerous undocumented sources state that Eddy encouraged other musicians to borrow, share and even improve upon his works. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find supporting documentation for this contention.
Duane Eddy, Rebel-Rouser (1958)
Music is extremely personal. Few people share my tastes. While I don’t share the opinion, there were many in the late 1950s and early 1960s, who regarded Eddy as the greatest pop instrumentalist of all time. However, many more are probably agreed that this was Eddy’s greatest contribution, or at least better than Moovin’ n Groovin’ . It combines a folk tune with an unusual gritty sound that makes it unique for the time period. Some call it eerie or haunting, while others call it magical. When I listen to it now, the sound is dominated by the limitations of audio production of the time period.
The Champs, Tequila (1958)
Tequila was written by saxophonist Danny Flores (1929 – 2006), but credited to his alter-ego Chuck Rio because he was under contract to RPM Records. He utters the title several times during a performance. This was a one-hit wonder for The Champs in the late 1950s. However, the work took on a new life when it was included in 1985’s Pee–wee’s Big Adventure. Pee-wee Herman dance has become a pop-culture phenomenon. Tequila was initially released as a B-side of Train to Nowhere.
Dave (Baby) Cortez (1938 – ), The Happy Organ (1959)
Baby Cortez wrote The Happy Organ in 1959, along with photographer James J. Kriegsmann (1909 – 1994) and Ken (some sources say Kurt) Wood (? – ? ). A significant portion of the tune bears a strong resemblance to Shortnin’ Bread, written by James Whitcomb Riley (1849 – 1916) in the 1890s.
Up until now, I have no memory of hearing any of the instrumentals, at the time of their initial appearance.
Henry Mancini (1924 – 1994), Peter Gunn (1959)
In his autobiography, Did They Mention the Music? (1989), Mancini writes:The Peter Gunn title theme actually derives more from rock and roll than from jazz. I used guitar and piano in unison, playing what is known in music as an ostinato, which means obstinate. It was sustained throughout the piece, giving it a sinister effect, with some frightened saxophone sounds and some shouting brass. The piece has one chord throughout and a super-simple top line.
The official visualizer gives an appropriate audio and visual presentation of the music where the piano riff is played by John Williams (1932 – ), the trumpet by Ray Anthony (1922 – ), and the tenor saxophone by Plas Johnson (1931 – ). This contrasts with the opening scene of the television series in 1958, with violence followed by announcements of the title, as well as credits for Craig Stevens (1918 – 2000) and Blake Edwards (1922 – 2010). Only a minimal amount of the theme can be heard. The music was recorded in 1958, but released in 1959.
Jerry Lordan (1934 – 1995), Apache (1960)
A number of musicians have either covered or sampled this track that was written by Lordan. It was inspired by the film, Apache (1954), and was first recorded by Bert Weedon (1920-2012), but not released until after a version popularized by The Shadows in 1960. Originally, it was to be the B-side of a single with Quartermaster’s Store. Producer Norrie Paramor (1914 – 1979) used his daughters as judges to determine which track should be the A-side. Apache won. Canadians may be interested to know that it was a version by Jørgen Ingmann that topped the CHUM Top 30 charts.
In the early 1970s a version by the Incredible Bongo Band became a hip-hop anthem. Later, the Sugarhill Gang made a dance-party version for group and line dancers. Recently, I have listened to another version by Kil Rockers, of Quilicura, Chile. It seemed to be the spiritual successor to the Shadows.
Booker T & M.G.’s Green Onions (1962)
I don’t know how true this memory is, for I am recalling an event that happened over sixty years ago. At some point I was on a bus heading from New Westminster to Ellensburg, Washington, with other members of the New Westminster Junior Concert Band for a weekend away. Somewhere on this adventure, I imagine hearing Green Onions, then in Seattle, I discovered the Green Onion cafe, where we stopped to eat.
Some regard Green Onions as the greatest groove track of all time. Others call it the greatest rhythm and blues instrumental in music history. Once again, it has been used in numerous films and commercials. While Booker T. Jones’ (1944- ) played the Hammond M3 organ, Steve The Colonel Cropper (1941- ), of Blues Brothers fame, played guitar.
Green Onions was Booker T & the M.G.’s signature song. This song has been used extensively in popular and niche films. It can be heard in two movies I find memorable, Rush Hour (1998) and The Sandlot (1993). It evokes youthful playfulness and mischief.
Dick Dale (1937 – 2019) and His Del-Tones, Misirlou (1962)
Known as the King of the Surf Guitar, Dale inspired many young, aspiring musicians, including Brian May (1947 – ), Jimi Hendrix (1942 – 1970) and Eddie Van Halen (1955 – 2020). Dale was especially known for his reverberation techniques. Miserlou was used in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994).
The Tornados, Telstar (1962)
Telstar was an instrumental performed by the English band the Tornados, but was written and produced by Joe Meek (1929 – 1967). It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1962-12.
While the Tornados are credited as the performers of this song, they were essentially studio musicians working under the direction of Meek, who wrote and produced the song. Previously, I have written about the Clavioline synthesizer used.
Currently, I am in the process of writing a weblog post about recording production, that will contain information about Joe Meek and other producers. In 2012, New Musical Express, founded in 1952 and usually known as NME, put Meek at the top of their list of greatest producers, above George Martin (1926 – 2016), Phil Spector (1939 – 2021) and even my favourite, Brian Eno (1948 – ).
The Surfaris, Wipe Out (1963)
If Dick Dale inspired people to play a guitar, then Surfaris drummer and vocalist Ron Wilson (1944 – 1989) inspired people to play drums. This song was composed at the Pal Recording Studio, in Cucamonga, California, when the band realized they needed a B-side for their Surfer Joe single. Before the music starts, Bob Berryhill’s (1947 – ) father broke a wooden board near a microphone, imitating the breaking of a surfboard, this was followed band manager Dale Smallin (1935 – 2011), laughting and yelling Wipe Out . Despite claims that it reached the top of Billboard’s Hot 100, it only reached #2!
Pink Floyd, Interstellar Overdrive (1967)
At its beginning, I find this track appealing. Unfortunately, this does not last. Some suggest it becomes more experimental, or at least improvised, as it progresses. With a length approaching 10 minutes, it is several minutes too long. It was written in 1966 and appeared on Pink Floyd’s 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Its style is mainly psychedelic and discordant. It originated when the band’s manager, Peter Jenner (1943 – ), hummed a tune trying to remember the song it belonged to. Guitarist Syd Barrett (1946 – 2006) interpretation of that humming resulted in the track. It was also used in the film Doctor Strange (2016).
The version of the song that I prefer is performed by Hawkwind. It was recorded in 1971. Hawkwind was founded by Dave Brock (1941 – ) in 1969. Lemmy Kilminster (1945 – 2015) of Motörhead, played bass for Hawkwind, from 1971 to 1975. He was fired from the band after a drug arrest at Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In a 2014 interview, Lemmy stated: I really found myself as an instrumentalist in Hawkwind. Before that I was just a guitar player who was pretending to be good, when actually I was no good at all. In Hawkwind I became a good bass player. It was where I learned I was good at something.
Mason Williams (1938 – ), Classical Gas (1968)
Many people regard this piece as brilliant. However, I find his most popular recorded version too ornate, for my simpler tastes. It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, there are some acoustic versions are just a little more rustic, that I can relate to.
In addition to his musical abilities, I admire Williams for his lifetime friendship with Edward Ruscha (1937 – ), who I appreciate for his photographic minimalism and artistic books, exemplified by Twenty Six Gasoline Stations (1963). Yes, I am contemplating making a follow up in the spirit of the original, Twenty Six Charging Stations!
Led Zeppelin, Black Mountain Side (1969)
Herbert Jansch (1943 – 2011) was a Scottish folk musician born in Glasgow, and a founding member of Pentangle. Without credit, Led Zeppelin, adapted Jansch’s arrangement of the traditional Irish folk song Down by Blackwaterside. It was recorded at Olympic Studios, London, in 1968. Unfortunately, many attribute this song to Jimmy Page (1944 – ) referring to him as the composer of the piece. Jansch’s version is not instrumental, as he sang the lyrics on it. Jansch, in turn, is indebted to Anne Briggs (1944 – ) who introduced him to this, and other Irish folk songs. Anne Briggs also sang and recorded a version of this song. Both of these were in Bert Lloyd‘s (1908 – 1982) circle of intimates.
Up until now, almost all of the musicians mentioned here are members of the greatest generation, born 1901 – 1927, and the silent generation, born 1928 – 1945.
In a second post, scheduled for next week, the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, marks the time when baby boomers, born 1945 – 1964, start to become prominent on the musical scene.
Sometimes, interesting statistics just pass through my reading conduit, mentally noted, but not recorded. For example, at some point it was claimed that the median age of the owners of new Suzuki vehicles was the highest in Norway. I believe it was somewhere in the early 60s. Because this was at the brand level I was not surprised. I realized that all of the Suzuki owners I knew were mature. However, if the result was based on a specific Suzuki model, I would have been more surprised.
Reading does not give me all the answers. There are situations where I learn things on the streets. A new example, all those observations where one guesses the apparent demographic makeup of vehicle drivers. Many vehicle models are driven by a mix of genders and ages. There are exceptions. Drivers of a BMW i3 are predominantly female. The owners I know are all women teachers, except for one outlier in California. In terms of age, drivers of Hyundai Atos have always looked old! So do drivers of its replacement, the Hyundai i10. These are the two models I expected to have the oldest owners. These are not cars that the youngest drivers eagerly await to inherit from generous grandparents.
As Norway heads deeper into its final year allowing sale of new internal combustion engine ( ICE) vehicles, I have been wondering what older people without the cash to buy a Tesla Y will be acquiring. It is a relevant question, to be asked everywhere. Electric vehicles (EVs) are still less affordable than ICE vehicles.
I had expected Hyundai to update its i10 to an EV. This appears to be an incorrect assessment. European media speculates that Hyundai’s smallest EV will be the Casper. If you think this vehicle is named after a friendly ghost, you are only partially correct. According to Hyundai, it was named after a skateboarding technique, that was named after this ghost.
The Hyundai Casper is an A-segment (Europe)/ city car (North America) vehicle. Hyundai claims it is the world’s smallest crossover SUV. The precise size of the EV version is unknown (to me, anyway) at this point but it will probably not be more than: 3.60 (length) x 1.60 (width) x 1.60 (height) meters. The model is currently under development in Japan. Interesting, because Hyundai is a South Korean brand, and the primary market is Europe.
It is to be equipped with an American Borg-Warner iDM 146 = integrated (electric) drive module, that operates with 400 V, and provides a peak output of 70 to 100 kW. Torque is stated to be from 1500 – 2000 Nm. Press releases about the motor state: “its modular design allows power and torque output to be scaled specifically to customer requirements.” Several automotive journalists claim a 0 – 100 km/h acceleration at 6.5 s. It is not quite as fast as that of a B-segment Volvo EX30, but fast enough for most people. It will also be equipped with a 39 kWh battery, giving an estimated range of about 300 km, but this is disputed. Fast charging from 10 – 80% takes about 40 minutes.
Note: I find much of the content about the Casper specifications from automotive journalists (and others) difficult to accept. Some have specified a power of 135 kW, which is outside the Borg-Warner range for this model of motor. If this were 135 horse power, then this is at the top end of the range, 100 kW. Then there are questions about torque. Torque values of 1500 Nm have been offered by journalists. Values from there to 2000 Nm are given in written material from Borg-Warner. Thus, I wonder if Americans, used to measuring torque in foot-pounds, and not understanding acceptable values in Nm, have made a decimal placement error, so that the torque is between 150 and 200 Nm. A VW electric motor common on ID series vehicles, with 150 kW, typically produces 310 Nm of torque. A standard 2024Tesla Y with 220 kW of power, has 420 Nm of torque. An A-segment Fiat 500e has 86 kW of power and 220 Nm of torque.
European models will be made at the Nošovice, Czech Republic, factory. As long as a few other conditions are met, this allows the model to be treated as a European vehicle, in terms of government subsidies.
According to a video on The Auto Vision – The Korean Car News (YouTube) Channel, there is some possibility that the Casper could also be offered for sale in North America. Hyundai is planning to open an EV plant near Savannah, Georgia. With the right mixture of ingredients this could also allow North American subsidies.
Part of the appeal of the Casper, and similar vehicles, by older drivers, is the height of the vehicle, which gives a better view of the road, which can (to some extent) compensate for reduced reaction speeds. In other European countries, narrow vehicles are appreciated, because they suit narrow medieval streets. In Norway it is narrow rural roads. Everywhere, this type of vehicle is only filled with one or two people, if it is used for commuting. It is not suitable everywhere, but is useful in areas without adequate public transport, but with adequate parking. Frequently, this type of vehicle will appeal to older drivers, especially when provided with advanced driver-assistance systems. Many retired people do not need or want a large car.
Kia Ray
There is also speculation that Hyundai could make a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) version of the Casper. Yes, it would be sensible for Hyundai to produce something that looks like a Kia Ray. The Ray is 10 cm taller than the Casper. Otherwise most specifications are almost the same.
Hobbies can influence vehicle purchases. I am not convinced that a couple of sets of golf clubs will fit into a Casper, but they probably will fit into a Ray. So people who need to transport large items, such as teenagers, may prefer an MPV.
Since Hyundai tries to keep both brands alive in Europe, it is possible that such a van could be made at Kia’s manufacturing plant in Europe is located in in Žilina, Slovakia.
Driver assistance system features include: Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist and Safe Exit Warning. Convenience features include: a ventilated driver’s seat and air-purification mode. Perhaps the most unique feature is its rear passenger doors. These are sliding on the curb side of the vehicle, but swing-out on the opposite side. Regard the swing-out door as an emergency exit.
Speculation
Since the beginning of 2023, Hyundai has only sold EVs in Norway. Currently these are: the Kona, Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Ioniq 5 N. The Kona is front-wheel drive (FWD), the others have all-wheel drive (AWD) as an option, although I have never experienced anyone buying one without that option. Norwegians also prefer cars with trailer hitches and roof racks. The Norwegian Hyundai website, has a page dedicated to trailer hitches, and the carrying capacity of each model, which is for trailers with brakes, 750 kg for some Konas and 300 kg for others, 1 500 kg for the Ioniq 6, and 1 600 kg for the Ioniq 5. While there are pickups in Norway, they are not a popular choice. Almost everyone has access to a utility trailer!
Currently, the suggestion is that Casper will come with FWD, not AWD. I suspect that its purchasers will be a wider demographic than that of the Atos or i10: Older drivers may want to buy one as their only car; middle aged drivers may choose one as a second car, used for commuting; younger drivers may relish the opportunity to buy an affordable vehicle. In a few years time, even the very youngest drivers may eagerly await the inheritance of a Casper from generous grandparents.