Project Cybersyn

[ed]

I stumbled on Brain of the Firm by Stafford Beer as a freshman in college, and loved the idea of an auto-optimizing business.

Back then I had questions about exactly how such a system could be implemented, the algorithm was very hand wavey, but I assumed surely they must’ve figured it out before writing a book about it.

As an adult with 20 years extra experience, I’m fairly confident that, no, aside from the high level concept, they had no idea how to build such a system. That coup was probably the best possible outcome for Beer - it gave credibility to his ideas without actually testing them.

[nsingh2]

There is an argument to be made that that companies like Walmart and Amazon operate as planned economies. They use the same cybernetic principles, real time data monitoring and feedback loops, to solve logistics and planning. These implementations do give credibility Beer's ideas.

There is even a section about this in the wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn#Contemporary_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People%27s_Republic_of_Wal...

[rbanffy]

The fact it could have worked probably weighted in the decision to sponsor the coup and the regime that destroyed its legacy.

A real shame.

[wesselbindt]

The amount of effort spent and blood spilled to make anything that even remotely smells like socialism fail is one of the greater tragedies of the 20th century.

[dysoco]

I have personally not listened to it but there's a recent podcast that covers this story and I've heard it's really good, it's called "The Santiago Boys" it's referenced in the article.

[quarkz14]

Wasn't aware of the podcast, thanks will have a listen!

[spirodonfl]

I covered this, in full, in depth and detail, on one of my streams.

https://www.youtube.com/live/UI8u4BLGJA0?si=JssmdJFR6uW55t1P...