Designing Liberty, regulating a Nation. Cybernetic Socialism in Salvador Allende's Chile.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48160/18517072re38.538Keywords:
technology, socialism, designAbstract
The article analyzes the ambitious technological project known as Synco, developed in Chile during the socialist government of Salvador Allende (1970–1973). This system was designed by British cybernetician Stafford Beer, in collaboration with the young Chilean engineer and politician Fernando Flores, with the goal of enabling the Chilean state to manage the nationalized economy in real time, in line with the ideals of democratic socialism.
Synco aimed to connect state-owned industries through a teletype network linked to a central computer in Santiago, Chile. The system was based on Beer’s Viable System Model, inspired by the organization of the human nervous system, which divided management into five levels—from day-to-day operations to strategic decision-making. The project combined technology, cybernetics, and workers’ participation, reflecting Allende’s vision of a planned yet decentralized and participatory economy.
The Synco system consisted of four main components:
- Cybernet: a national teletype communication network;
- Cyberstride: statistical analysis software for monitoring key performance indicators;
- CHECO: an economic simulator to forecast future scenarios;
- Opsroom: a futuristic operations room designed to facilitate collective decision-making.
Although Synco was never fully completed, it proved its usefulness during the October 1972 strike, when it allowed the government to coordinate resources and partially maintain the country's operability in the face of economic sabotage. The experience offered a concrete alternative to centralized economic planning, incorporating principles of networked management, feedback, and local autonomy.
The article highlights that this project represents a little-explored chapter of Latin American socialism, in which technology was not only a management tool but also a means to envision a democratic and just future. It also shows how technological ideas from the Global North were reinterpreted in the context of the Global South. This research contributes to the history of computing and cybernetics by showing how this knowledge circulated and was applied beyond the traditional centers of scientific expertise.
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