ProleWiki - User contributions [en]

OGAS

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Novosti Press Agency Publishing House

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Soviet cybernetics

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Cybernetics

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Wassily Leontief

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Input-output planning

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Yuri Popov

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Material balance planning

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OGAS

2022-01-03T06:32:47Z

Q1H1: created OGAS page

'''OGAS''' (Russian: Общегосударственная автоматизированная система учёта и обработки информации, "ОГАС", "National Automated System for Computation and Information Processing") was a Soviet project to create a nationwide information network. The project began in 1962 but was denied necessary funding in 1970. It was one of a series of attempts to create a nationwide network analogous to what became the Internet, all of which failed.

== Concept ==
The primary architect of OGAS was [[Viktor Glushkov]]. A previous proposal for a national computer network to improve central planning, Anatoly Kitov's Economic Automated Management System, had been rejected in 1959 because of concerns in the military that they would be required to share information with civilian planners. Glushkov proposed OGAS in 1962 as a three-tier network with a computer centre in Moscow, up to 200 midlevel centres in other major cities, and up to 20,000 local terminals in economically significant locations, communicating in real time using the existing telephone infrastructure. The structure would also permit any terminal to communicate with any other. Glushkov further proposed using the system to move the Soviet Union towards a moneyless economy, using the system for electronic payments. The project failed because Glushkov's request for funding on 1 October 1970 was turned down. The 24th Communist Party Congress in 1971 was to have authorised implementation of the plan, but ultimately endorsed only expansion of local information management systems. Glushkov subsequently pursued another network plan, [[EGSVT]], which was also underfunded and not carried out.

The OGAS proposal was resented by some liberals as excessive central control, but failed primarily because of bureaucratic infighting: it was under the auspices of the Central Statistical Administration and as such fell afoul of Vasily Garbuzov, who saw a threat to his Ministry of Finance. When [[EGSVT]] failed, the next attempt (SOFE) was done in 1964 by Nikolay Fedorenko, who attempted to build an information network that could be used in economic planning in Soviet Union's planned economy. The project was successful at a micro-level but did not spread into wide use.

== Cybernetic economic planning ==
Beginning in the early 1960's, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union considered moving away from the existing Stalinist command planning in favor of developing an interlinked computerized system of resource allocation based on the principles of Cybernetics. This development was seen as the basis for moving toward optimal planning that could form the basis of a more highly developed form of socialist economy based on informational decentralization and innovation. This was seen as a logical progression given that the material balances system was geared toward rapid industrialization, which the Soviet Union had already achieved in the preceding decades. But by the early 1970's the idea of transcending the status quo was abandoned by the Soviet leadership, who felt the system threatened Party control of the economy. By the early 1970's official interest in this system ended.

By the end of 1970's the development of Soviet computers lead to creation of the project called Academset aimed at construction of nationwide optic fiber and radio/satellite digital network but only the Leningrad part of it was actually implemented before dissolution of the USSR. By 1992 Soviet computers serving it were destroyed and in 1990 USSR/Russia obtained a state-independent global Internet connection via telephone to Finland due to efforts of a private telecom enterprise called Relcom.

Novosti Press Agency Publishing House

2022-01-03T06:22:13Z

Q1H1: created novosti press agency page

Novosti Press Agency (APN), a Soviet public information service founded in Moscow in 1961. Its founding members were the USSR Journalists' Union, the USSR Writers' Union, the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations With Foreign Countries, and the Znanie (Knowledge) society.

Soviet cybernetics

2022-01-03T06:14:28Z

Q1H1: created soviet cybernetics page

Initially, from 1950–54, the reception of cybernetics, in the Soviet Union, was exclusively negative. The Soviet Department for Agitation and Propaganda had called for anti-Americanism to be intensified in Soviet media, and in an attempt to fill the Department's quotas, Soviet journalists latched on to cybernetics as an American "reactionary pseudoscience" to denounce and mock. This attack was interpreted as a signal of an official attitude to cybernetics, so, under Joseph Stalin's premiership, cybernetics was inflated into "a full embodiment of imperialist ideology" by Soviet writers. Upon Stalin's death, the wide-reaching reforms of Nikita Khrushchev's premiership allowed cybernetics to legitimise itself as "a serious, important science", and in 1955, articles on cybernetics were published in the state philosophical organ, ''Voprosy Filosofii'', after a group of Soviet scientists realised the potential of this new science.

Cybernetics began to serve as an umbrella term for areas of soviet science such as structural linguistics and genetics. Under the headsmanship of academician Aksel Berg, the Council of Cybernetics was formed, an umbrella organisation dedicated to providing funding for these new lights of Soviet science. By the 1960's, this fast legitimisation put cybernetics in fashion, as "cybernetics" became a buzzword among career-minded scientists. By the 1980's, cybernetics had lost relevance in Soviet scientific culture, as its terminology and political function was succeeded by those of informatics in the Soviet Union and, eventually, post-Soviet states.

Project Cybersyn

2022-01-03T06:08:21Z

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{{External article cleanup|date=November 2021}}
'''Project Cybersyn''' was a Chilean project from 1971 to 1973 during the presidency of [[Salvador Allende]] aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to manage the national economy along a socialist basis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/11088.html|title=IU professor analyzes Chile's 'Project Cybersyn'|publisher=UI News Room|access-date=27 May 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090910060602/http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/11088.html|archive-date=10 September 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-09-08|title=Andy Beckett: The forgotten story of Chile's 'socialist internet'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/sep/08/sciencenews.chile|access-date=2021-06-25|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

The CIA-backed military coup against the socialist government ended the project on September 11, 1973.

== History ==
The name is a portmanteu of the words ''[[cybernetics]]'' and ''synergy''. In Spanish, the project was instead called Synco, both an initialism for ''Sistema de INformación y COntrol'', ('system of information and control'), and a pun on the Spanish ''cinco'', the number five, alluding to the five levels of Beer's viable system model

Stafford Beer was a British consultant in management cybernetics who also sympathized with the ideals of Chilean socialism.

The system was most useful in breaking a reactionary strike which was organized by the fascist Patria y Libertad group and partially financed by private donors who had received money from the CIA.<ref>[https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94chile.pdf Senate Intelligence Report - Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973]</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Eden|last=Medina|title=Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile|journal=Journal of Latin American Studies|number=38|pages=571–606|doi=10.1017/S0022216X06001179|year=2006|volume=38|publisher=Cambridge University Press|s2cid=26484124}}</ref>

== System ==
Telex machines were put in factories, which would report information back to the planning office in Santiago.

There were 500 unused telex machines bought by the previous government. Each was put into a factory. In the control centre in Santiago, each day data coming from each factory (several numbers, such as raw material input, production output and number of absentees) were put into a computer, which made short-term predictions and necessary adjustments. There were four levels of control (firm, branch, sector, total), with algedonic feedback. If one level of control did not remedy a problem in a certain interval, the higher level was notified. The results were discussed in the operations room and a top-level plan was made. The network of telex machines, called ''Cybernet'', was the first operational component of Cybersyn, and the only one regularly used by the Allende government.

The software for Cybersyn was called ''Cyberstride'', and used Bayesian filtering and Bayesian control. It was written by Chilean engineers in consultation with a team of 12 British programmers. Cybersyn first ran on an IBM 360/50, but later was transferred to a less heavily used Burroughs 3500 mainframe.

The vision had been distribution of control and involvement of workers in business planning. The design looked more like bureaucratic centralisation of control via bottom up reporting and top-down direction. Workers were expected to perform processes and use resources in the ways that had been modelled and planned. Any significant deviation from was to be reported upwards, and corrective directives were to be cascaded downwards. Cybersyn project was very similar to the proposed [[OGAS]] drawn up by [[Victor Glushkov]] in the USSR.

A related development was known as the Project Cyberfolk, which allowed citizens to send information about their moods to the Project organizers.

== Legacy ==
Computer scientist [[Paul Cockshott]] and economist [[Allin Cottrell]] referenced Project Cybersyn in their 1993 book ''[[Towards a New Socialism]]'', citing it as an inspiration for their own proposed model of computer-managed socialist planned economy.<ref>{{cite book|first1=W. P.|last1=Cockshott|title=Towards a New Socialism|last2=Cottrell|first2=A|publisher=Spokesman|year=1993|page=99}}</ref>

Authors Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski also dedicated a chapter on the project in their 2019 book, ''The People's Republic of Walmart''. The authors presented a case to defend the feasibility of a planned economy aided by contemporary processing power used by large organizations such as [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], [[Walmart]] and [[the Pentagon]]. The authors, however, question whether much can be built on Project Cybersyn in particular, specifically, "whether a system used in emergency, near–civil war conditions in a single country—covering a limited number of enterprises and, admittedly, only partially ameliorating a dire situation—can be applied in times of peace and at a global scale" especially as the project was never completed due to the fascist military coup in 1973, which was followed by pro-capitalist shock therapy by the [[Chicago Boys]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Leigh|last1=Phillips|title=The People's Republic of Walmart: How the World's Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism|last2=Rozworski|first2=Michal|date=March 5, 2019|publisher=[[Verso Books]]|isbn=978-1786635167|edition=1st|page=230}}</ref>

Chilean science fiction author [[Jorge Baradit]] published a Spanish-language science fiction novel ''Synco'' in 2008. It is an [[alternate history]] [[science fantasy]] novel set in a 1979, of which he said: "It stops the military coup, the socialist government consolidates and creates the first cybernetic state, a universal example, the true third way, a miracle."

In October 2016, ''[[99% Invisible]]'' produced a podcast about the project.<ref>{{cite web|title=Project Cybersyn|url=https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/project-cybersyn/|website=[[99% Invisible]]|access-date=20 December 2019}}</ref> The ''Radio Ambulante'' podcast covered some history of Allende and the Cybersyn project in their 2019 episode "The Room That Was A Brain".<ref>[https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/the-room-that-was-a-brain "The Room That Was A Brain"]. ''Radio Ambulante''.</ref>

''[[The Guardian]]'' called the project "a sort of socialist internet, decades ahead of its time".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Beckett|first1=Andy|title=Santiago dreaming|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/sep/08/sciencenews.chile|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=September 8, 2003|access-date=20 December 2019}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Economic calculation debate]]
* [[Material balance planning]]
* [[OGAS]]
* [[Planned economy]]
* [[Socialist economy]]

== References ==
[[Category:Socialism in Chile]]
[[Category:Economic planning]]
[[Category:Socialism]]

Cybernetics

2022-01-03T06:04:35Z

Q1H1: created page for cybernetics

'''Cybernetics''' is a wide-ranging field concerned with regulatory and purposive systems. The core concept of cybernetics is circular causality or feedback—where the observed outcomes of actions are taken as inputs for further action in ways that support the pursuit and maintenance of particular conditions, or their disruption. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causality, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson maintains a steady course in a changing environment by adjusting their steering in continual response to the effect it is observed as having. Other examples of circular causal feedback include: technological devices such as thermostats (where the action of a heater responds to measured changes in temperature, regulating the temperature of the room within a set range); biological examples such as the coordination of volitional movement through the nervous system; and processes of social interaction such as conversation. Cybernetics is concerned with feedback processes such as steering however they are embodied, including in ecological, technological, biological, cognitive, and social systems, and in the context of practical activities such as designing, learning, managing, conversation, and the practice of cybernetics itself. Cybernetics' transdisciplinary and "antidisciplinary" character has meant that it intersects with a number of other fields, leading to it having both wide influence and diverse interpretations.

Cybernetics has its origins in exchanges between numerous fields during the 1940's, including anthropology, mathematics, neuroscience, psychology, and engineering. Initial developments were consolidated through meetings such as the Macy Conferences and the Ratio Club. At its most prominent during the 1950s and 1960s, cybernetics is a precursor to fields such as computing, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, complexity science, and robotics amongst others. It is closely related to systems science, which was developed in parallel. Early focuses included purposeful behaviour, neural networks, heterarchy, information theory, and self-organising systems. As cybernetics developed, it became broader in scope to include work in domains such as design, family therapy, management and organisation, pedagogy, sociology, and the creative arts. At the same time, questions arising from circular causality have been explored in relation to the philosophy of science, ethics, and constructivist approaches, while cybernetics has also been associated with counter-cultural movements. Contemporary cybernetics thus varies widely in scope and focus, with cyberneticians variously adopting and combining technical, scientific, philosophical, creative, and critical approaches.

== Cybernetics in the soviet union ==
Cybernetics in the Soviet Union was initially considered a "pseudoscience" and "ideological weapon" of "imperialist reactionaries" (Soviet Philosophical Dictionary, 1954) and later criticised as a narrow form of cybernetics. In the mid to late 1950's [[Viktor Glushkov]] and others salvaged the reputation of the field. [[Soviet cybernetics]] incorporated much of what became known as computer science in the West.

The design of self-regulating control systems for a real-time [[planned economy]] was explored by economist [[Oskar Lange]], cyberneticist [[Viktor Glushkov]], and other Soviet cyberneticists during the 1960's.

Wassily Leontief

2022-01-03T05:56:17Z

Q1H1: Created page for Wassily Leontief

'''Wassily Wassilyevich Leontief''' (Russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Лео́нтьев; August 5, 1905 – February 5, 1999), was a Soviet-American economist known for his research on input–output analysis and how changes in one economic sector may affect other sectors.

Leontief won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1973, and four of his doctoral students have also been awarded the prize (Paul Samuelson 1970, Robert Solow 1987, Vernon L. Smith 2002, Thomas Schelling 2005).
[[File:Wassily Leontief.jpg|thumb|256x256px]]

== Major contributions ==
Leontief is credited with developing early contributions to [[input–output analysis]] and earned the Nobel Prize in Economics for his development of its associated theory. He has also made contributions in other areas of economics, such as international trade where he documented the Leontief paradox. He was also one of the first to establish the composite commodity theorem.

Leontief earned the Nobel Prize in economics for his work on input–output tables. Input–output tables analyze the process by which inputs from one industry produce outputs for consumption or for inputs for another industry. With the input–output table, one can estimate the change in demand for inputs resulting from a change in production of the final good. The analysis assumes that input proportions are fixed; thus the use of input–output analysis is limited to rough approximations rather than prediction. Input–output was novel and inspired large-scale empirical work; in 2010 its iterative method was recognized as an early intellectual precursor to Google's PageRank.

Leontief used input–output analysis to study the characteristics of trade flow between the U.S. and other countries, and found what has been named Leontief's paradox; "this country resorts to foreign trade in order to economize its capital and dispose of its surplus labor, rather than vice versa", i.e., U.S. exports were relatively labor-intensive when compared to U.S. imports. This is the opposite of what one would expect, considering the fact that the U.S.'s comparative advantage was in capital-intensive goods. According to some economists, this paradox has since been explained as due to the fact that when a country produces "more than two goods, the abundance of capital relative to labor does not imply that the capital intensity of its exports should exceed that of imports."

Leontief was also a very strong proponent of the use of quantitative data in the study of economics. Throughout his life Leontief campaigned against "theoretical assumptions and non-observed facts". According to Leontief, too many economists were reluctant to "get their hands dirty" by working with raw empirical facts. To that end, Wassily Leontief did much to make quantitative data more accessible, and more indispensable, to the study of economics.

== Publications ==

* 1925: ''Баланс народного хозяйства СССР.'' ("Balans narodnogo khozyaystva SSSR") in ''Planovoe Khozyaystvo [ru]''; translated into Italian in Spulber N.(Ed.) as "Il Bilancio dell'economia nazionale dell'URSS." in ''La Strategia Sovietica per Sviluppo Economico 1924–1930'', Giulio Einaudi ed., Torino [discussing the Soviet "Balance of the National Economy", 1923–4]
* 1928: ''Die Wirtschaft als Kreislauf'', Tübingen: Mohr: re-published as ''The economy as a circular flow'', pp. 181–212 in: Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Volume 2, Issue 1, June 1991; this translation is abridged to avoid controversial statements.
* 1941: ''Structure of the American Economy, 1919–1929''
* 1953: ''Studies in the Structure of the American Economy''
* 1966: ''Input-Output Economics''
* 1966: ''Essays in Economics''
* 1977: ''Essays in Economics, II''
* 1977: ''The Future of the World Economy''
* 1983: ''Military Spending: Facts and Figures, Worldwide Implications and Future Outlook'' co-authed with F. Duchin.
* 1983: ''The Future of Non-Fuel Minerals in the U. S. And World Economy'' co-authed with J. Koo, S. Nasar and I. Sohn

* 1986: ''The Future Impact of Automation on Workers'' co-authored with F. Duchin

== Awards ==

* 1953: Order of the Cherubim, University of Pisa
* 1962: Dr honoris causa, University of Brussels
* 1967: Dr of the University, University of York
* 1968: Officer of the French Légion d'honneur
* 1970: Bernhard-Harms Prize Economics, West Germany
* 1971: Dr honoris causa, University of Louvain
* 1972: Dr honoris causa, University of Paris (Sorbonne)
* 1973: Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, a.k.a. Nobel Prize in Economics
* 1976: Dr honoris causa, University of Pennsylvania
* 1980: Dr honoris causa, University of Toulouse, France
* 1980: Dr honoris causa, University of Louisville, Kentucky
* 1980: Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Vermont
* 1980: Doctor of Laws, C. W. Post Center, Long Island University
* 1980: Russian-American Hall of Fame
* 1981: Karl Marx University, Budapest, Hungary
* 1984: Order of the Rising Sun, Japan
* 1985: Commandeur, French Order of Arts and Letters
* 1988: Dr honoris causa, Adelphi College
* 1988: Foreign member, USSR Academy of Sciences
* 1989: Society of the Optimate, Italian Cultural Institute, New York
* 1990: Dr honoris causa, University of Córdoba, Spain
* 1991: Takemi Memorial Award, Institute of Seizon & Life Sciences, Japan
* 1995: Harry Edmonds Award for Life Achievement, International House, New York
* 1995: Dr honoris causa, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
* Award of Excellence, The International Center in New York

File:Wassily Leontief.jpg

2022-01-03T05:46:06Z

Q1H1:

Born Wassily Wassilyevich Leontief
August 5, 1905
Munich, German Empire
Died February 5, 1999 (aged 93)
New York City,[2] United States
Citizenship Russian Empire, Soviet Union, United States
Alma mater Friedrich Wilhelm University, (PhD)
University of Leningrad, (MA)
Known for Input–output analysis
Awards Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1973)
Scientific career
Fields Economics
Institutions University of Kiel
New York University
Harvard University
Thesis Wirtschaft als Kreislauf (1928)
Doctoral advisor Ladislaus Bortkiewicz
Werner Sombart
Doctoral students Paul Samuelson
Thomas Schelling
Robert Solow
Kenneth E. Iverson
Vernon L. Smith
Richard E. Quandt
Hyman Minsky
Khodadad Farmanfarmaian
Dale W. Jorgenson
Michael C. Lovell
Karen R. Polenske
F.M. Scherer
Hollis B. Chenery
Influences Léon Walras
Influenced George B. Dantzig

File:Matris.png

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Image of a Matrix

Input-output planning

2022-01-03T05:38:42Z

Q1H1: Created page for Input-output planning

The structural approach to economics developed by [[Wassily Leontief]] and known as [[Input-output analysis]], paved the way for the transformation of economics into a truly empirical discipline that could utilise modern data processing technology. The input-output approach is described not only as a formal theory theory but also as a research strategy and a powerful tool for dealing with a complex modern economy.

A form of planning which consists of a [[matrix]] of rows and columns designated for each industry, in which each sector is given input values i.e amount of steel for transport, construction etc which is ran through mathematical operations in it's process to determine the output.

There is not much difference between Input-output planning and [[Material balance planning]] other than differences in ideology

Yuri Popov

2022-01-03T05:20:20Z

Q1H1: Created page for economist Yuri Popov

'''Yuri Popov''' was an economics professor born in 1931, He lectured on political economy at the most renowned higher education establishments in Moscow.

D.sc. (Economics)

He Taught at the National School of Administration in the Mali republic in 1963 and 1964, and at the University of Algiers in 1965 and 1966. In 1977 and 1978 he headed the department of economics and organisation of production at Annaba University (Algeria). He lectured in France, Finland and Denmark and in developing countries including Morocco, Tunisia, Guinea, the Congo (Brazzaville), Tanzania, Benin, Cameroun, Laos, Syria and others.

== Publishing ==
His work was published in a small booklet by [[Novosti Press Agency Publishing House]] called 'The Soviet Experience - Economic Planning a vital task for socialist-orientated countries' in 1984 which he discusses the theoretical principles and experience of socialist economic planning. He considers both the theory and practice of planning in the conditions of real socialism created in the soviet union and problems of planning facing the countries that have taken the road of socialist orientation or have already begun the building of socialism.

Material balance planning

2022-01-03T05:03:23Z

Q1H1: Created MBP page

'''Material balances''' are a method of economic planning where material supplies are accounted for in natural units (as opposed to using monetary accounting) and used to balance the supply of available inputs with targeted outputs. Material balancing involves taking a survey of the available inputs and raw materials in an economy and then using a balance sheet to balance the inputs with output targets specified by industry to achieve a balance between supply and demand. This balance is used to formulate a plan for resource allocation and investment in a national economy.

The method of material balances is contrasted with the method of [[input-output planning]] developed by [[Wassily Leontief]].

== Role in Soviet-type planning ==
Material balance planning was the principal tool of planning employed by Soviet-type planned economies and was Gosplan's major function in the Soviet Union. This system emerged in a haphazard manner during the collectivisation era. It prioritised rapid growth and industrialisation over efficiency. Although material balances became an established part of Soviet planning, it never completely replaced the role of financial calculation in the economy.

In the economy of the Soviet Union, Gosplan's major function was the formulation of material balances and national plans for the economy. In 1973, supplies for 70% of all industrial production representing 1,943 of the economy's most important items had their balances worked out by [[Gosplan]]. [[Gossnab]] and the various economic ministries were responsible for the determination of the suppliers and recipients of supplies in the Soviet economy.

Material balance planning encompassed non-labor inputs (the distribution of consumer goods and allocation of labor was left to market mechanisms). In a material balance sheet, the major sources of supply and demand are drawn up in a table that achieves a rough balance between the two through an iterative process. Successive iterations corrected imbalances with previous iterations - for example, deficits signalled the need for extra output in the successive iteration of the balance.

Beginning in the early 1960's, the USSR considered moving away from material balance planning in favour of developing an interlinked computerised system of resource allocation based on the principles of cybernetics using the proposed [[OGAS]] plan drawn up by [[Victor Glushkov]]. This development was seen as the basis for moving toward optimal planning that could form the basis of a more highly developed form of socialist economy based on informational innovation. This was seen as a logical progression given that the material balances system was geared toward rapid industrialisation, which the Soviet Union had already achieved in the preceding decades. But by the early 1970's the idea of transcending the status quo was abandoned by the Soviet leadership.

Project Cybersyn

2022-01-03T04:47:43Z

Q1H1: /* System */

{{External article cleanup|date=November 2021}}
'''Project Cybersyn''' was a Chilean project from 1971 to 1973 during the presidency of [[Salvador Allende]] aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to manage the national economy along a socialist basis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/11088.html|title=IU professor analyzes Chile's 'Project Cybersyn'|publisher=UI News Room|access-date=27 May 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090910060602/http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/11088.html|archive-date=10 September 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-09-08|title=Andy Beckett: The forgotten story of Chile's 'socialist internet'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/sep/08/sciencenews.chile|access-date=2021-06-25|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

The CIA-backed military coup against the socialist government ended the project on September 11, 1973.

== History ==
The name is a portmanteu of the words ''cybernetics'' and ''synergy''. In Spanish, the project was instead called Synco, both an initialism for ''Sistema de INformación y COntrol'', ('system of information and control'), and a pun on the Spanish ''cinco'', the number five, alluding to the five levels of Beer's viable system model

Stafford Beer was a British consultant in management cybernetics who also sympathized with the ideals of Chilean socialism.

The system was most useful in breaking a reactionary strike which was organized by the fascist Patria y Libertad group and partially financed by private donors who had received money from the CIA.<ref>[https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94chile.pdf Senate Intelligence Report - Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973]</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Eden|last=Medina|title=Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile|journal=Journal of Latin American Studies|number=38|pages=571–606|doi=10.1017/S0022216X06001179|year=2006|volume=38|publisher=Cambridge University Press|s2cid=26484124}}</ref>

== System ==
Telex machines were put in factories, which would report information back to the planning office in Santiago.

There were 500 unused telex machines bought by the previous government. Each was put into a factory. In the control centre in Santiago, each day data coming from each factory (several numbers, such as raw material input, production output and number of absentees) were put into a computer, which made short-term predictions and necessary adjustments. There were four levels of control (firm, branch, sector, total), with algedonic feedback. If one level of control did not remedy a problem in a certain interval, the higher level was notified. The results were discussed in the operations room and a top-level plan was made. The network of telex machines, called ''Cybernet'', was the first operational component of Cybersyn, and the only one regularly used by the Allende government.

The software for Cybersyn was called ''Cyberstride'', and used Bayesian filtering and Bayesian control. It was written by Chilean engineers in consultation with a team of 12 British programmers. Cybersyn first ran on an IBM 360/50, but later was transferred to a less heavily used Burroughs 3500 mainframe.

The vision had been distribution of control and involvement of workers in business planning. The design looked more like bureaucratic centralisation of control via bottom up reporting and top-down direction. Workers were expected to perform processes and use resources in the ways that had been modelled and planned. Any significant deviation from was to be reported upwards, and corrective directives were to be cascaded downwards. Cybersyn project was very similar to the proposed [[OGAS]] drawn up by [[Victor Glushkov]] in the USSR.

A related development was known as the Project Cyberfolk, which allowed citizens to send information about their moods to the Project organizers.

== Legacy ==
Computer scientist [[Paul Cockshott]] and economist [[Allin Cottrell]] referenced Project Cybersyn in their 1993 book ''[[Towards a New Socialism]]'', citing it as an inspiration for their own proposed model of computer-managed socialist planned economy.<ref>{{cite book|first1=W. P.|last1=Cockshott|title=Towards a New Socialism|last2=Cottrell|first2=A|publisher=Spokesman|year=1993|page=99}}</ref>

Authors Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski also dedicated a chapter on the project in their 2019 book, ''The People's Republic of Walmart''. The authors presented a case to defend the feasibility of a planned economy aided by contemporary processing power used by large organizations such as [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], [[Walmart]] and [[the Pentagon]]. The authors, however, question whether much can be built on Project Cybersyn in particular, specifically, "whether a system used in emergency, near–civil war conditions in a single country—covering a limited number of enterprises and, admittedly, only partially ameliorating a dire situation—can be applied in times of peace and at a global scale" especially as the project was never completed due to the fascist military coup in 1973, which was followed by pro-capitalist shock therapy by the [[Chicago Boys]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Leigh|last1=Phillips|title=The People's Republic of Walmart: How the World's Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism|last2=Rozworski|first2=Michal|date=March 5, 2019|publisher=[[Verso Books]]|isbn=978-1786635167|edition=1st|page=230}}</ref>

Chilean science fiction author [[Jorge Baradit]] published a Spanish-language science fiction novel ''Synco'' in 2008. It is an [[alternate history]] [[science fantasy]] novel set in a 1979, of which he said: "It stops the military coup, the socialist government consolidates and creates the first cybernetic state, a universal example, the true third way, a miracle."

In October 2016, ''[[99% Invisible]]'' produced a podcast about the project.<ref>{{cite web|title=Project Cybersyn|url=https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/project-cybersyn/|website=[[99% Invisible]]|access-date=20 December 2019}}</ref> The ''Radio Ambulante'' podcast covered some history of Allende and the Cybersyn project in their 2019 episode "The Room That Was A Brain".<ref>[https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/the-room-that-was-a-brain "The Room That Was A Brain"]. ''Radio Ambulante''.</ref>

''[[The Guardian]]'' called the project "a sort of socialist internet, decades ahead of its time".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Beckett|first1=Andy|title=Santiago dreaming|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/sep/08/sciencenews.chile|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=September 8, 2003|access-date=20 December 2019}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Economic calculation debate]]
* [[Material balance planning]]
* [[OGAS]]
* [[Planned economy]]
* [[Socialist economy]]

== References ==
[[Category:Socialism in Chile]]
[[Category:Economic planning]]
[[Category:Socialism]]

Project Cybersyn

2022-01-03T04:42:10Z

Q1H1: /* System */

{{External article cleanup|date=November 2021}}
'''Project Cybersyn''' was a Chilean project from 1971 to 1973 during the presidency of [[Salvador Allende]] aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to manage the national economy along a socialist basis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/11088.html|title=IU professor analyzes Chile's 'Project Cybersyn'|publisher=UI News Room|access-date=27 May 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090910060602/http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/11088.html|archive-date=10 September 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-09-08|title=Andy Beckett: The forgotten story of Chile's 'socialist internet'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/sep/08/sciencenews.chile|access-date=2021-06-25|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

The CIA-backed military coup against the socialist government ended the project on September 11, 1973.

== History ==
The name is a portmanteu of the words ''cybernetics'' and ''synergy''. In Spanish, the project was instead called Synco, both an initialism for ''Sistema de INformación y COntrol'', ('system of information and control'), and a pun on the Spanish ''cinco'', the number five, alluding to the five levels of Beer's viable system model

Stafford Beer was a British consultant in management cybernetics who also sympathized with the ideals of Chilean socialism.

The system was most useful in breaking a reactionary strike which was organized by the fascist Patria y Libertad group and partially financed by private donors who had received money from the CIA.<ref>[https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94chile.pdf Senate Intelligence Report - Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973]</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Eden|last=Medina|title=Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile|journal=Journal of Latin American Studies|number=38|pages=571–606|doi=10.1017/S0022216X06001179|year=2006|volume=38|publisher=Cambridge University Press|s2cid=26484124}}</ref>

== System ==
Telex machines were put in factories, which would report information back to the planning office in Santiago.

The vision had been distribution of control and involvement of workers in business planning. The design looked more like bureaucratic centralisation of control via bottom up reporting and top-down direction. Workers were expected to perform processes and use resources in the ways that had been modelled and planned. Any significant deviation from was to be reported upwards, and corrective directives were to be cascaded downwards. Cybersyn project was very similar to the proposed [[OGAS]] drawn up by [[Victor Glushkov]] in the USSR.

A related development was known as the Project Cyberfolk, which allowed citizens to send information about their moods to the Project organizers.

== Legacy ==
Computer scientist [[Paul Cockshott]] and economist [[Allin Cottrell]] referenced Project Cybersyn in their 1993 book ''[[Towards a New Socialism]]'', citing it as an inspiration for their own proposed model of computer-managed socialist planned economy.<ref>{{cite book|first1=W. P.|last1=Cockshott|title=Towards a New Socialism|last2=Cottrell|first2=A|publisher=Spokesman|year=1993|page=99}}</ref>

Authors Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski also dedicated a chapter on the project in their 2019 book, ''The People's Republic of Walmart''. The authors presented a case to defend the feasibility of a planned economy aided by contemporary processing power used by large organizations such as [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], [[Walmart]] and [[the Pentagon]]. The authors, however, question whether much can be built on Project Cybersyn in particular, specifically, "whether a system used in emergency, near–civil war conditions in a single country—covering a limited number of enterprises and, admittedly, only partially ameliorating a dire situation—can be applied in times of peace and at a global scale" especially as the project was never completed due to the fascist military coup in 1973, which was followed by pro-capitalist shock therapy by the [[Chicago Boys]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Leigh|last1=Phillips|title=The People's Republic of Walmart: How the World's Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism|last2=Rozworski|first2=Michal|date=March 5, 2019|publisher=[[Verso Books]]|isbn=978-1786635167|edition=1st|page=230}}</ref>

Chilean science fiction author [[Jorge Baradit]] published a Spanish-language science fiction novel ''Synco'' in 2008. It is an [[alternate history]] [[science fantasy]] novel set in a 1979, of which he said: "It stops the military coup, the socialist government consolidates and creates the first cybernetic state, a universal example, the true third way, a miracle."

In October 2016, ''[[99% Invisible]]'' produced a podcast about the project.<ref>{{cite web|title=Project Cybersyn|url=https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/project-cybersyn/|website=[[99% Invisible]]|access-date=20 December 2019}}</ref> The ''Radio Ambulante'' podcast covered some history of Allende and the Cybersyn project in their 2019 episode "The Room That Was A Brain".<ref>[https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/the-room-that-was-a-brain "The Room That Was A Brain"]. ''Radio Ambulante''.</ref>

''[[The Guardian]]'' called the project "a sort of socialist internet, decades ahead of its time".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Beckett|first1=Andy|title=Santiago dreaming|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/sep/08/sciencenews.chile|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=September 8, 2003|access-date=20 December 2019}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Economic calculation debate]]
* [[Material balance planning]]
* [[OGAS]]
* [[Planned economy]]
* [[Socialist economy]]

== References ==
[[Category:Socialism in Chile]]
[[Category:Economic planning]]
[[Category:Socialism]]