Eden Medina’s Cybernetic Revolutionaries.

It’s the story of Project Cybersyn, Allende’s government’s project to democratically plan the Chilean economy using cybernetics and computers. Eden Medina did a great job putting it together, and it’s hard to imagine someone better suited to the task – she is bilingual, an engineer, and a clear communicator.

It’s such an important story, and more people need to know about it. It often feels like we on the left have ceded digital technology to capitalists. We criticize the tech industry, but we rarely offer a concrete vision for an alternative. And there must be one, because it’s plainly obvious how useful computers are. Cyberneticians like Stafford Beer (who features prominently in the book) had that vision. It’s the path computer technology didn’t take, and we should reclaim it.