> For those who remember Stafford Beer. > ------------------------------------------------ > SANTIAGO JOURNAL > Foreign Desk; SECTA > Before '73 Coup, Chile Tried to Find the Right Software for Socialism > By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO > 28 March 2008 > The New York Times <javascript:void(0)> > SANTIAGO, Chile -- When military forces loyal to Gen. Augusto Pinochet > staged a coup here in September 1973, they made a surprising > discovery. Salvador Allende's Socialist government had quietly > embarked on a novel experiment to manage Chile's economy using a > clunky mainframe computer and a network of telex machines. > The project, called Cybersyn, was the brainchild of A. Stafford Beer, > a visionary Briton who employed his ''cybernetic'' concepts to help > Mr. Allende find an alternative to the planned economies of Cuba and > the Soviet Union. After the coup it became the subject of intense > military scrutiny. > In developing Cybersyn, Mr. Beer changed the lives of the bright young > Chileans he worked with here. Some 35 years later, this little-known > feature of Mr. Allende's abortive Socialist transformation was > remembered in an exhibit in a museum beneath La Moneda, the > presidential palace. > A Star Trek-like chair with controls in the armrests was a replica of > those in a prototype operations room. Mr. Beer planned for the room to > receive computer reports based on data flowing from telex machines > connected to factories up and down this 2,700-mile-long country. > Managers were to sit in seven of the contoured chairs and make > critical decisions about the reports displayed on projection screens. > While the operations room never became fully operational, Cybersyn > gained stature within the Allende government for helping to > outmaneuver striking workers in October 1972. That helped planners > realize -- as the pioneers of the modern-day Internet did -- that the > communications network was more important than computing power, which > Chile did not have much of, anyway. A single I.B.M. 360/50 mainframe, > which had less storage capacity than most flash drives today, > processed the factories' data, with a Burroughs 3500 later filling in. > > Cybersyn was born in July 1971 when Fernando Flores, then a > 28-year-old government technocrat, sent a letter to Mr. Beer seeking > his help in organizing Mr. Allende's economy by applying cybernetic > concepts. Mr. Beer was excited by the prospect of being able to test > his ideas. > He wanted to use the telex communications system -- a network of > teletypewriters -- to gather data from factories on variables like > daily output, energy use and labor ''in real time,'' and then use a > computer to filter out the important pieces of economic information > the government needed to make decisions. > Mr. Beer set up teams of computer programmers in England and Chile, > and began making regular trips to Santiago to direct the project. He > was paid $500 a day while working in Chile, a sizable sum here at the > time, said Raul Espejo, who was Cybersyn's operations director. > The Englishman became a mentor to the Chilean team, many of them in > their 20s. On one visit he tried to inspire them by sharing Richard > Bach's ''Jonathan Livingston Seagull,'' the story of a seagull who > follows his dream to master the art of flying against the wishes of > the flock. > An imposing man with a long gray-flecked beard, Mr. Beer was a college > dropout who challenged the young Chileans with tough questions. He > shared his love for writing poetry and painting, and brought books and > classical music from Europe. He smoked cigars and drank whiskey and > wine constantly, ''but was never losing his head,'' Mr. Espejo said. > Most of the Cybersyn team scrupulously avoided talking about politics, > and some even had far-right-wing views, said Isaquino Benadof, who led > the team of Chilean engineers designing the Cybersyn software. > One early challenge was how to build the communications network. Short > of money, the team found 500 unused telex machines in a warehouse of > the national telecommunications company. > Cybersyn's turning point came in October 1972, when a strike by > truckers and retailers nearly paralyzed the economy. The > interconnected telex machines, exchanging 2,000 messages a day, were a > potent instrument, enabling the government to identify and organize > alternative transportation resources that kept the economy moving. > The strike ended within a week. While it weakened Mr. Allende's > Popular Unity party, the government survived, and Cybersyn was praised > for playing a major role. ''From that point on the communications > center became part of whatever was happening,'' Mr. Espejo said. > ''Chile run by computer,'' blared The British Observer on Jan. 7, > 1973, as word of the experiment began leaking out. > But as the country's political and security situation worsened, Mr. > Beer and his Chilean team realized that time was running out. > Mr. Allende remained committed to Cybersyn to the end. On Sept. 8, > 1973, he gave orders to move the operations room to the presidential > palace. But three days later the military took over; Mr. Allende died > that afternoon. > Military officials soon confronted Cybersyn's leaders, seeking to > understand their political motivations. Mr. Benadof said he was > interrogated at least three times. Mr. Espejo, after being questioned, > was warned to leave the country; two months after the coup he fled to > England. > The military never could grasp Cybersyn, and finally dismantled the > operations room. Several other Cybersyn team members went into exile. > Mr. Flores, who was both economy and finance minister in the Allende > government, spent three years in military concentration camps. After > his release, he moved with his family to California to study at > Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, where > he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. > He later was one of the inventors of the Coordinator, a program that > tracked spoken commitments between workers within a company, one of > the first forays into ''work flow'' software. He became a millionaire > and returned to Chile, where today he is a senator representing the > Tarapaca Region. > Mr. Beer, who died in 2002, helped some team members secure college > teaching positions in England. That included Mr. Espejo, who dedicated > himself to advancing cybernetics. > ''The Chilean project completely transformed Stafford's life, and he > obviously had a huge impact on all of us,'' Mr. Espejo said. > ''Clearly, his work was not recognized during his lifetime. But what > he has written will remain for a long time.'' > PHOTO: A replica of a chair that was part of an experiment in the > early 1970s to use a computer to help manage Chile's > economy.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JOAO PINA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) >
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