imagined networks: cybernetics and politics

imagined networks: cybernetics and politics

"I’ve read a little about the Cybersyn project implemented during Allende’s socialist government in Chile from 1971-1973. It attempted to control the Chilean economy from a central electronic top-down command center that could respond instantaneously to the various workings of Chilean industrial production—using Telex machines, it wanted to keep track of individual machine failings, worker productivity, etc, and to use these things to statistically forecast and model the Chilean economy. This top-down modeling happened, crucially, from a national command center—literally a room—where the information was directed, compiled, and acted upon by analysts working for the Chilean government. Real-time response gave these data points flow."