Patrick Wood, Building Empire on the Backs of Digital Slaves
AbstractTechnocracy has always had the domination of man in mind, even from its inception at Columbia University in 1932. As technology advanced, it has been commandeered at every turn to support its stated purposes of “the science of engineering,” abolishment of private property, scientific dictatorship, and sequestration of all resources, among others.For the first time in history, Technocracy has been wrapped in a political ideology and a religious system, and it now seeks to escape the boundaries of the United States. In other words, the new and expanded goal of Technocracy is to “build empire” throughout the world, using AI and cryptocurrency/blockchain as weapons of mass subjugation.This presentation will examine the first six months of the Trump Administration to assess how this plan is being implemented and to consider what lies ahead.Summary by Courtenay TurnerPatrick Wood, a foundational scholar in the study of technocracy, initiated the symposium with a systematic analysis of technocracy’s historical development and contemporary manifestations. Drawing upon his publications, such as The Evil Twins of Technocracy and Transhumanism (with a forthcoming volume in November 2025), Wood argued that technocracy has consistently pursued the domination of human agency through technological means. He posited that this ideology, now integrated with political and religious frameworks, employs artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies as instruments for global subjugation, with recent U.S. policy developments serving as a primary case study.Wood defined technocracy per the 1937 Technocrat magazine as the “science of social engineering,” entailing the scientific management of societal mechanisms for the production and distribution of goods and services. This framework eliminates political systems, financial structures, and exploitative practices, replacing them with a distribution certificate allocated from birth to death. The seven requirements outlined in the 1930s Technocracy Study Course—including continuous inventories of production and consumption, and detailed registration of individual behaviors—remain unaltered, now facilitated by digital infrastructures.Central to Wood’s analysis were the key actors, whom he termed “arch technocrats,” including Elon Musk (architect of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE), Peter Thiel (founder of Palantir and mentor to JD Vance), David Sacks (appointed as AI and cryptocurrency advisor), Mark Andreessen, Michael Kratsios (Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, formerly of Scale AI), Howard Lutnick (Secretary of Commerce), and Larry Ellison (Oracle co-founder). Their aggregate net worth exceeds $1.2 trillion, and their actions, influenced by the “Dark Enlightenment” philosophy, reflect a strategic erosion of populist movements to advance technocratic objectives.Wood detailed the data aggregation strategy via DOGE, established in 2024 by Musk, Lutnick, and Trump. Far from enhancing efficiency, DOGE functioned as a mechanism to consolidate federal data, deploying 109 teams to extract information from agencies. Non-compliance resulted in terminations under the “Replace All Government Employees” doctrine. The objective was to integrate healthcare, diagnostic, financial, genomic, and geospatial data into unified AI platforms, as articulated by Ellison in a cited video: a single database accessible for AI consumption. Palantir secured a $319 million contract to process this data.In the monetary domain, the executive order banning Federal Reserve central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) enabled the privatization of stablecoins and asset tokenization through the STABLE and GENIUS Acts. This encompasses the digitization of resources from 680 million federal acres, valued at $500 trillion by Lutnick, facilitating a transition to an asset-based economy devoid of debt.On a global scale, the White House’s “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” authored by Kratsios, Sacks, and Rubio, delineates strategies for exporting the comprehensive AI infrastructure—encompassing hardware, models, software, and standards—to allied nations, while countering Chinese influence and enforcing biometric identification through genomic data mandates.Wood concluded by advocating for localized education and resource dissemination. His platform, technocracy.news, hosts over 6,600 articles; a boot camp offers in-depth training; and brochures serve as conversational tools (e.g., “You wanted convenience. Instead, you got replaced,” featuring robotic automation). Physical books provide uncensorable records. Wood emphasized individual agency: resistance begins with recognizing humanity’s inherent value against technocratic commodification. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dhughes.substack.com/subscribe