Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile (The MIT Press)

In Cybernetic Revolutionaries , Eden Medina tells the history of two intersecting utopian visions, one political and one technological. The first was Chile's experiment with peaceful socialist change under Salvador Allende; the second was the simultaneous attempt to build a computer system that would manage Chile's economy. Neither vision was fully realized -- Allende's government ended with a violent military coup; the system, known as Project Cybersyn, was never completely implemented -- but they hold lessons for today about the relationship between technology and politics. Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews, Medina examines the cybernetic system envisioned by the Chilean government -- which was to feature holistic system design, decentralized management, human-computer interaction, a national telex network, near real-time control of the growing industrial sector, and modeling the behavior of dynamic systems. She also describes, and documents with photographs, the network's Star Trek-like operations room, which featured swivel chairs with armrest control panels, a wall of screens displaying data, and flashing red lights to indicate economic emergencies. Studying project Cybersyn today helps us understand not only the technological ambitions of a government in the midst of political change but also the limitations of the Chilean revolution. This history further shows how human attempts to combine the political and the technological with the goal of creating a more just society can open new technological, intellectual, and political possibilities. Technologies, Medina writes, are historical texts; when we read them we are reading history. A historical study of Chile's twin experiments with cybernetics and socialism, and what they tell us about the relationship of technology and politics. In Cybernetic Revolutionaries , Eden Medina tells the history of two intersecting utopian visions, one political and one technological. The first was Chile's experiment with peaceful socialist change under Salvador Allende; the second was the simultaneous attempt to build a computer system that would manage Chile's economy. Neither vision was fully realized—Allende's government ended with a violent military coup; the system, known as Project Cybersyn, was never completely implemented—but they hold lessons for today about the relationship between technology and politics. Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews, Medina examines the cybernetic system envisioned by the Chilean government—which was to feature holistic system design, decentralized management, human-computer interaction, a national telex network, near real-time control of the growing industrial sector, and modeling the behavior of dynamic systems. She also describes, and documents with photographs, the network's Star Trek-like operations room, which featured swivel chairs with armrest control panels, a wall of screens displaying data, and flashing red lights to indicate economic emergencies. Studying project Cybersyn today helps us understand not only the technological ambitions of a government in the midst of political change but also the limitations of the Chilean revolution. This history further shows how human attempts to combine the political and the technological with the goal of creating a more just society can open new technological, intellectual, and political possibilities. Technologies, Medina writes, are historical texts; when we read them we are reading history. In __Cybernetic Revolutionaries__, Eden Medina tells the history of two intersecting utopian visions, one political and one technological. The first was Chile's experiment with peaceful socialist change under Salvador Allende; the second was the simultaneous attempt to build a computer system that would manage Chile's economy. Neither vision was fully realized -- Allende's government ended with a violent military coup; the system, known as Project Cybersyn, was never completely implemented -- but they hold lessons for today about the relationship between technology and politics. Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews, Medina examines the cybernetic system envisioned by the Chilean government -- which was to feature holistic system design, decentralized management, human-computer interaction, a national telex network, near real-time control of the growing industrial sector, and modeling the behavior of dynamic systems. She also describes, and documents with photographs, the network's Star Trek-like operations room, which featured swivel chairs with armrest control panels, a wall of screens displaying data, and flashing red lights to indicate economic emergencies. Studying project Cybersyn today helps us understand not only the technological ambitions of a government in the midst of political change but also the limitations of the Chilean revolution. This history further shows how human attempts to combine the political and the technological with the goal of creating a more just society can open new technological, intellectual, and political possibilities. Technologies, Medina writes, are historical texts; when we read them we are reading history.

In Cybernetic Revolutionaries, Eden Medina tells the history of two intersecting utopian visions, one political and one technological. The first was Chile's experiment with peaceful socialist change under Salvador Allende; the second was the simultaneous attempt to build a computer system that would manage Chile's economy. Neither vision was fully realized—Allende's government ended with a violent military coup; the system, known as Project Cybersyn, was never completely implemented—but they hold lessons for today about the relationship between technology and politics.

Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews, Medina examines the cybernetic system envisioned by the Chilean government—which was to feature holistic system design, decentralized management, human-computer interaction, a national telex network, near real-time control of the growing industrial sector, and modeling the behavior of dynamic systems. She also describes, and documents with photographs, the network's Star Trek-like operations room, which featured swivel chairs with armrest control panels, a wall of screens displaying data, and flashing red lights to indicate economic emergencies. Studying project Cybersyn today helps us understand not only the technological ambitions of a government in the midst of political change but also the limitations of the Chilean revolution. This history further shows how human attempts to combine the political and the technological with the goal of creating a more just society can open new technological,intellectual, and political possibilities. Technologies, Medina writes, are historical texts; when we read them we are reading history.

Contents 8 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 14 Abbreviations 16 Prologue 18 Introduction: Political and Technological Visions 20 Chilean Cybernetics 25 Structure 29 Chapter 1. Cybernetics and Socialism 32 Stafford Beer 34 Cybernetics 37 Management Cybernetics 41 Cybernetics and Chilean Socialism 47 Beer’s New Models 49 Connecting Cybernetics and Socialism 57 Chapter 2. Cybernetics in the Battle for Production 60 Allende’s First Year 67 Chilean Computing in Context 72 Science in Context 82 Chapter 3. Designing a Network 86 Technology for an Adaptive Economy 87 Socialist Technology 89 Beer and Allende 91 Getting Started 94 El Arrayán 100 March 1972 102 Project Cybersyn 105 Project Cyberfolk 105 Implementing a Vision 109 Chapter 4. Constructing the Liberty Machine 112 Creating a Culture 114 Technology Transfer 117 Socialism by Design 125 Politics and Practice 145 Populist Technology 150 “Programme Beat-the-Clock” 152 Political Challenges, Engineering Challenges 154 Chapter 5. The October Strike 158 Politics and the Cybersyn Team 159 El Paro de Octubre 162 Cybersyn and the Strike 165 The New Minister 168 Beer’s New Level of Recursion 170 A Technology of Contradictions 182 Chapter 6. Cybersyn Goes Public 188 Polemicizing Project Cybersyn 190 Political Viability, Technological Viability 201 An Instrument of Revolution 210 Las Cruces 214 The End of the Democratic Road 219 Technology and Politics 223 Chapter 7. Conclusion: Technology, Politics, History 228 Epilogue: The Legacy of Cybersyn 240 Appendix 1: The Structure of the State- Run Economy 252 Appendix 2: Timeline on Computing and the Chilean State (1927–1964) 254 Notes 258 Bibliography 318 Index 326 Content: Technological and political visions -- Cybernetics and socialism -- cybernetics in the battle for production -- Designing a network -- Constructing the liberty machine -- The October strike -- Cybersyn goes public -- Conclusion : technology, politics, history.