A while ago Jason Kottke spent an article on the mysterious Project Cybersyn, which is described as a “a Chilean attempt at real-time computer-controlled planned economy in the years 1970–1973”. Project Cybersyn existed during the government of president Salvador Allende and consisted of a network of telex machines that linked factories with a single computer center in Santiago. From here the principles of cybernetics were used to control the modes of production in real-time, or, as The Guardian describes it:

“Voters, workplaces and the government were to be linked together by a new, interactive national communications network, which would transform their relationship into something profoundly more equal and responsive than before — a sort of socialist internet, decades ahead of its time.”

The principal architect of the system was British operations research scientist Stafford Beer, who was asked by Allende to design it. It took about one year to launch a first version of Project Cybersyn, but Beer, who is also known for his Viable System Model, never managed to entirely complete it. The Cybersyn control center (see picture above) received its stream of data from 500 telex machines that were put in 500 factories throughout the country. Each piece of data, such as numbers about raw material input, production output and the number of absentees, was put into a computer which was able to make short-term predictions and necessary adjustments.

“There were four levels of control (firm, branch, sector, total), with algedonic feedback (if lower level of control didn’t remedy a problem in a certain interval, the higher level was notified). The results were discussed in the operations room and the top-level plan was made.”

Worth mentioning is the futuristic design of the control room, as you can notice in the picture above. It was designed by interface designer Gui Bonsiepe and furnished with “seven swivel chairs (considered the best for creativity) with buttons, which controlled several large screens that could project the data, and other panels with status information”. The system proved to be most useful in October 1972, when thousands of striking truck drivers blocked the access streets to the Chilean capital. Using the Cybersyn machines, the authorities could guarantee transport of food into the city “with only about 200 trucks driven by strike-breakers”. After Pinochet’s military coup on September 11, 1973, the control centre was destroyed.