Paolo Capriati

Cybersyn and the political system in Chile, 1971-73

My research involved Cybersyn. Cybersyn is a project developed between 1971 and 1973 in Chile, by the government of Salvador Allende. The goal of this project was to coordinate the national economy and encourage the participation of workers in decision-making, through a real-time communication system and an automated data processing program, generating an embryonic form of automation of some political decision-making processes. Beginning with the analysis of Cybersyn and, more generally, early cybernetic thought, I have tried to understand what idea of a political system underpinned the Chilean cybernetic project.