[p2p-research] Project Cybersyn

[Kevin Carson]

  Sent to you by Kevin Carson via Google Reader: Project Cybersyn via
Marginal Revolution by Alex Tabarrok on 12/7/09

Cybersyn was a project of the socialist government of Salvador Allende
(1970-1973) and British cybernetic visionary Stafford Beer; its goal
was to control the Chilean economy in real-time using computers
and "cybernetic principles." The military regime that overthrew Allende
dropped the project and probably for this reason when the project is
periodically rediscovered it is often written about in a romantic tone
as a revolutionary "socialist internet," decades ahead of its time that
was "destroyed" by the military because it was "too egalitarian" or
because they didn't understand it.

Although some sources at the time said the Chilean economy was "run by
computer," the project was in reality a bit of a joke, albeit a rather
expensive one, and about the only thing about it that worked were the
ordinary Western Union telex machines spread around the country. The
two computers supposedly used to run the Chilean economy were IBM 360s
(or machines on that order). These machines were no doubt very
impressive to politicians and visionaries eager to use their
technological might to control an economy (see picture at right.)
Today, our perspective will perhaps be somewhat different when we
realize that these behemoths were far less powerful than an iPhone. Run
an economy with an iPhone? Sorry, there is no app for that.

Indeed, you don't have to read far between the lines of Andy "socialist
internet" Beckett's account to get a flavor of what was really going on:
Beer's original band of disciples had been diluted by other, less
idealistic scientists. There was constant friction between the two
groups. Meanwhile, Beer himself started to focus on other schemes:
using painters and folk singers to publicise the principles of
high-tech socialism; testing his son's electrical public-opinion
meters, which never actually saw service; and even organising
anchovy-fishing expeditions to earn the government some desperately
needed foreign currency.
(Note the classic, 'the visionary failed because others lacked
idealism' story. Meanwhile the visionary is off on an anchovy-fishing
expedition.)


Recently, Jeremiah Axelrod and Greg Borenstein have put together an
excellent video essay (fyi, 25 minutes) which gets to the heart
(perhaps head would be a better word) of Cybersyn by focusing on the
legendary "control room," which they delightfully call the "inverted
panopticon."



It is no accident, say Axelrod and Borenstein, that the control room
looks like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise because the whole
purpose of the room was to exude a science-fiction fantasy of
omniscience and omnipotence. The fantasy naturally appealed to Allende
who had the control room moved to the presidential palace just days
before the coup.

The control room is like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise in
another respect--both are stage sets. Nothing about the room is real,
even the computer displays on the wall are simply hand drawn slides
projected from the other side with Kodak carousels.

Ironically, when rumors of the project began to circulate, the illusion
of omniscience and omnipotence that Beer had created, the same illusion
that so appealed to Allende and that had funded Beer's visions and
experiments, this illusion caused fear that an all-knowing big brother
was on the way--and such fear may even have encouraged the coup.

After the coup, rather than destroying the project because of
its "egalitarian" nature, the military regime was more likely to have
been disillusioned and disappointed to discover project Cybersyn's
impotence.

Hat tip to Boing Boing.



Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to Marginal Revolution using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20091208/164edd83/attachment.html>