@article{458614,
      recid = {458614},
      author = {Medina, Eden,},
      title = {Cybernetic revolutionaries : technology and politics in  Allende's Chile /},
      publisher = {MIT Press,},
      address = {Cambridge, Mass. :},
      pages = {1 online resource (xiv, 326 pages) :},
      year = {2011},
      abstract = {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.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/458614},
}