TY  - GEN
AB  - 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.
AU  - Medina, Eden,
CN  - JL2631
CY  - Cambridge, Mass. :
DA  - ©2011.
ID  - 458614
KW  - Government business enterprises
KW  - Government ownership
KW  - Cybernetics
KW  - SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/General
KW  - SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/History of Technology
KW  - COMPUTER SCIENCE/Human Computer Interaction
LK  - https://univsouthin.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8417.001.0001?locatt=mode:legacy
LK  - http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/forms/terms/vbrl-201703.pdf
N2  - 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.
PB  - MIT Press,
PP  - Cambridge, Mass. :
PY  - ©2011.
SN  - 0262298295
SN  - 9780262298292
SN  - 9780262297387
SN  - 0262297388
T1  - Cybernetic revolutionaries :technology and politics in Allende's Chile /
TI  - Cybernetic revolutionaries :technology and politics in Allende's Chile /
UR  - https://univsouthin.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8417.001.0001?locatt=mode:legacy
UR  - http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/forms/terms/vbrl-201703.pdf
ER  -