In Cybernetic Revolutionaries, historian Eden Medina explores one of the most ambitious—and lesser-known—experiments in political technology: Project Cybersyn, implemented during Salvador Allende’s socialist government in early 1970s Chile.
The book follows how Stafford Beer, a British cybernetician, was invited to design a decentralized, adaptive system to help manage Chile’s nationalized industries. Rather than replicate Soviet-style centralization, Cybersyn aimed for democratic planning, using real-time data (via telex machines) and feedback loops to coordinate production across sectors.
Cybersyn wasn’t just technical infrastructure—it was a vision of socialism with brains.
The Opsroom (Operations Room), now iconic, symbolized this vision: an ergonomic control center for visualizing economic activity without relying on market signals. But beyond tech, Medina highlights the political challenges, internal tensions, and international pressures (especially from the U.S.) that ultimately doomed the project following the 1973 coup.
Medina’s work stands out for combining:
- Rigorous historical research
- Insight into technology’s role in governance
- A nuanced view of socialism and innovation
Why It Still Matters
Today’s interest in algorithmic governance, digital planning, and economic democracy makes this book strikingly relevant. Cybersyn anticipated many of today’s debates: Can tech be democratic? Who controls data? Can we plan without centralizing power?
Medina doesn’t romanticize; she reconstructs. And in doing so, she reminds us that another technological future was—and may still be—possible.
Medina, E. (2013). Revolucionarios cibernéticos. Santiago: LOM Ediciones.