William Paul Cockshott (born 16 March 1952) is a Scottish academic in the fields of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

Marxist economics Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a Heterodox economics, heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx, Karl Marx's Critique of political economy#Marx's critique of politi ...

. He is a Reader at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. Since 1993 he has authored multiple works in the tradition of scientific socialism, most notably ''

Towards a New Socialism ''Towards a New Socialism'' is a 1993 non-fiction book written by Scottish computer scientist Paul Cockshott, co-authored by Scottish economics professor Allin F. Cottrell. The book outlines in detail a proposal for a complex planned socialist ...

'' and ''How the World Works''.

Scientific career

Cockshott earned a BA in economics (1974) from

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, an MSc (1976) in computer science from Heriot Watt University and a PhD in computer science from Edinburgh University (1982). He has made contributions in the fields of image compression, 3D television, parallel

compilers In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...

and

medical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to revea ...

, but became known to a wider audience for his proposals in the multi-disciplinary area of economic computability, most notably as co-author, along the

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, of the book ''

'', in which they strongly advocate the use of

cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

for efficient and democratic planning of a complex socialist economy. He proposes a moneyless socialist economy, akin to Karl Marx's description of a socialist society in '' Critique of the Gotha Programme'', realized by today's computer technology:

Political views

In the 1970s, Cockshott was a member of the British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO), but he and several other members became unhappy with B&ICO's position on workers' control.What is the Communist Organisation in the British Isles?
in ''Proletarian'', No. 1, c. 1974. Cockshott and several other B&ICO members resigned and formed a new party, the Communist Organisation in the British Isles, until its dissolution in 1980. Cockshott advocates for a system of a moneyless economy based on a computerized

planned economy A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, ...

and

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

. He has criticized the

economic calculation problem The economic calculation problem (ECP) is a criticism of using central economic planning as a substitute for Market (economics), market-based allocation of the factors of production. It was first proposed by Ludwig von Mises in his 1920 article ...

on the grounds that planning can be made feasible via computerization and allocation based on labor time.

Published works

*Cockshott, W. P. (1990). ''Ps-Algol Implementations: Applications in Persistent Object Oriented Programming'', Ellis Horwood Ltd. *Cockshott, W. P. (1990). ''A Compiler Writer's Toolbox: Interactive Compilers for PCs With Turbo Pascal'', Ellis Horwood Ltd. *Cockshott, W. P., Cottrell, A. (1993). ''

'', Spokesman. *Cockshott, W. P., Renfrew K. (2004). ''SIMD Programming Manual for Linux and Windows'', Springer. *Cockshott, W. P. (2010). ''Transition to 21st Century Socialism in the European Union'', Lulu. *Cockshott, W. P. (2011). ''Glasgow Pascal Compiler with vector extensions'', Lulu. *Cockshott, W. P., Zachariah, D. (2012). ''Arguments for Socialism'', Lulu. *Cockshott, W. P., Cottrell, A., Michaelson, G., Wright, I., Yakovenko, V. (2012). ''Classical Econophysics'', Routledge. *Cockshott, W. P., Mackenzie, L., Michaelson, G. (2015). ''Computation and its Limits'', Oxford University Press. *Cockshott, W. P. (2019). ''How the World Works: The Story of Human Labor from Prehistory to the Modern Day'',

Monthly Review Press The ''Monthly Review'' is an independent Socialism, socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. Established in 1949, the publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment ...

. *Cockshott, W. P., Dapprich J. P., Cottrell A. (2022). ''Economic Planning in an Age of Climate Crisis'', self-published. *Cockshott, W. P., Kolozova K., Michaelson G. (2024). ''Defending Materialism: The Uneasy History of the Atom in Science and Philosophy'', Bloomsbury Publishing.

References

External links

Paul Cockshott's YouTube channel

Paul Cockshott's blog

"Paul Cockshott - Towards a new Socialism (1/3)"
Video produced by Oliver Ressler on Paul Cockshott and his planned economy-model
Transcription
of a video by O. Ressler, recorded in Glasgow, GB, 25 min., 2006
''Towards a new socialism''
complete book download.
Len Brewster on "Towards a new Socialism? by W. Paul Cockshott and Allin F. Cottrell. (Nottingham, U.K.: Spokesman Books, 1993)", Review Essay
''The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics'', Vol.7, No.1 (Spring 2004): 65–77.; Paul Cockshott
"Notes for a critique of Brewster"
(20 June 2009). {{DEFAULTSORT:Cockshott, Paul Living people Scottish computer scientists 1952 births Marxist theorists People from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Glasgow Marxian economists Socialist economists