The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship: An Examination of Epistemic Autocracy (2006) by Phillip Darrell Collins and Paul David Collins argues that ruling elites have abandoned traditional mystical control systems, such as sun worship, in favor of a new, "scientific" methodology of manipulation. The book posits that a "criminal elite" has hijacked science, transforming it into an epistemological weapon—an "epistemic autocracy"—to control populations and create a global technocratic police state. The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship presents a critical view of the modern "Godless age," arguing that the "scientific-technological elite" is steering humanity towards a totalitarian "endgame" where the minds of the masses are the ultimate battlefield.