Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile

by Eden Medina

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262525961
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	01/10/2014
Series:	The MIT Press
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	342
Sales rank:	707,746
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Eden Medina is Associate Professor of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington and the author of Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile. She received the IEEE Life Member's Prize in Electrical History in 2007 for her work on Chile's experiments with cybernetics and socialism.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Abbreviations xv

Prologue 1

Introduction: Political and Technological Visions 3

1 Cybernetics and Socialism 15

2 Cybernetics in the Battle for Production 43

3 Designing a Network 69

4 Constructing the Liberty Machine 95

5 The October Strike 141

6 Cybersyn Goes Public 171

7 Conclusion: Technology, Politics, History 211

Epilogue: The Legacy of Cybersyn 223

Appendix 1 The Structure of the State-Run Economy 235

Appendix 2 Timeline on Computing and the Chilean State (1927-1964) 237

Notes 241

Bibliography 301

Index 309

What People are Saying About This

Fred Turner

Though we forget it at our peril, cybernetics has always been a science of control as well as communication. Medina's riveting history returns us to a moment when computers promised to liberate an entire nation. It reminds us just how appealing a cybernetic utopia can be, and how impossible to achieve.

Geoffrey C. Bowker

This wonderful book explores cybernetics in Allende's Chile. In so doing, it blends social and technical issues with large scale economic planning and the dynamic politics of the time. It is a must-read for anyone interested in this era, and for anyone interested in the incorporation of science and technology studies into historical and political discourse.

Howard Rheingold

Cybernetic Revolutionaries is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of cybernetics or the intersection of computer technology and politics.

Endorsement

Though we forget it at our peril, cybernetics has always been a science of control as well as communication. Medina's riveting history returns us to a moment when computers promised to liberate an entire nation. It reminds us just how appealing a cybernetic utopia can be, and how impossible to achieve.

—Fred Turner, author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network and the Rise of Digital Utopianism

From the Publisher

Cybernetic Revolutionaries is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of cybernetics or the intersection of computer technology and politics.

—Howard Rheingold, critic and author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution

This wonderful book explores cybernetics in Allende's Chile. In so doing, it blends social and technical issues with large scale economic planning and the dynamic politics of the time. It is a must-read for anyone interested in this era, and for anyone interested in the incorporation of science and technology studies into historical and political discourse.

—Geoffrey C. Bowker, Professor and Senior Scholar in Cyberscholarship, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

Though we forget it at our peril, cybernetics has always been a science of control as well as communication. Medina's riveting history returns us to a moment when computers promised to liberate an entire nation. It reminds us just how appealing a cybernetic utopia can be, and how impossible to achieve.

—Fred Turner, author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network and the Rise of Digital Utopianism

Editorial Reviews

...Medina has written a wonderful, accessible book, a thorough examination of a project that generally serves as an enigmatic aside in other histories. At times it's quite a romp, as befits a story with an extraordinary character like Beer at its heart. And it's a splendid introduction to Beer's thoughts, his ideals and the history of cybernetics.—Icon Magazine—

This is indispensable reading for historians of Latin America and historians of technology alike.

—Suzanne Moone, American Historical Review—

From the Publisher

This is indispensable reading for historians of Latin America and historians of technology alike.

—Suzanne Moone, American Historical Review

Reviews

This is indispensable reading for historians of Latin America and historians of technology alike.

American Historical Review - Suzanne Moone

...Medina has written a wonderful, accessible book, a thorough examination of a project that generally serves as an enigmatic aside in other histories. At times it's quite a romp, as befits a story with an extraordinary character like Beer at its heart. And it's a splendid introduction to Beer's thoughts, his ideals and the history of cybernetics.

Icon Magazine