Eyewar - Cybernetics and Project Cybersyn

A history of real-time information technlology, war, politics, commerce and the rise of the idea of organisational cybernetics.
Project Cybersyn was a Chilean project from 1971--1973 (during the government of President Salvador Allende) aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to aid in the management of the national economy.
Project Cybersyn was based on Viable system model theory and a neural network approach to organizational design, and featured innovative technology for its time: it included a network of telex machines (Cybernet) in state-run enterprises that would transmit and receive information with the government in Santiago. Information from the field would be fed into statistical modeling software (Cyberstride) that would monitor production indicators (such as raw material supplies or high rates of worker absenteeism) in real time, and alert the workers in the first case, and in unnormal situations also the central government, if those parameters fell outside acceptable ranges.
In July 1971, Stafford Beer was contacted by Fernando Flores, then a high-level employee of the Chilean Production Development Corporation (CORFO), for advice on incorporating Beer's theories of cybernetics into the management of the newly nationalized sector of Chile's economy. Beer saw this as a unique opportunity to implement his ideas of cybernetic management on a national scale, and also sympathized with the stated ideals of Chilean socialism, which aimed to maintain Chile's democratic system and the autonomy of workers instead of imposing a Soviet-style system of top-down command and control. More than just offering advice, Beer stepped aside from most of his other consulting business and devoted a great deal of time to what became Project Cybersyn, [...] However, after the military coup on September 11, 1973, Cybersyn was abandoned and the operations room was destroyed.
Sources
"IU professor analyzes Chile's 'Project Cybersyn'". UI News Room. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
Project Cybersyn | varnelis.net
Eden Medina (2011). Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile, 1st edn. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01649-0. section 4, p. 121
Eden Medina (2006). "Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile". J. Lat. Amer. Stud.
(Cambridge University Press) (38): 571--606. doi:10.1017/S0022216X06001179.
www.rootandthorn.soup.io
80 min. Root and Thorn - Realease-year unknown.
By Ganix Naston, Zoe Pavlovitch, Harun Krasna

[@MS-rg6ku]

I liked this film so much that I contacted Root and Thorn (the creators of this documentary) to ask them if they had any other work available for viewing and this is what they said: "Our own webpage was never much. It rendered as a QR code which produced a little cat/owl creature, but unfortunately Soup shut down their blog functionality." "Eyewr was originally made for and circulated among a small group of people back around 2012, and it has shown up in a lot of places we're still finding out about, quite a while later !! " I told them that I and many other people I know think that Eyewr is one of the best documentaries ever and told them that if they ever wondered if making another documentary would be worthwhile, that I and many others would definitely support that!!

[@spacewaves94]

Probably my favorite documentary.

[@omarmeran9533]

Outstanding doc and only 18k ppl in the world have watched this smh, mind blowing important info.

[@MS-rg6ku]

It boggles my mind how many disparate aspects of obscure and forgotten history were drawn upon to make this documentary I almost don't feel smart enough to watch it there's so much I have to research now, very well done though thanks for sharing

[@antoniofernandes9663]

It's very good. I would like to sugest you Hypernormalization by Adam Curtis or even the lectures of Mark Fischer that you can find on youtube.

[@MS-rg6ku]

@@antoniofernandes9663 I've never heard of Mark Fischer I'll have to check that out thanks :)

[@MS-rg6ku]

@@antoniofernandes9663 I would recommend looking up John Taylor Gatto

[@antoniofernandes9663]

​@@MS-rg6ku I see that his main field is the educational system I will check him. Thanks.

[@Srijit1946]

You should check out Prolekult, they make excellent documentaries looking at world politics, culture and economics, I recommend starting with their first (feature-length) documentary "History Is Marching".

[@arendpsa]

Finding this documentary was really helpful and informative. Thank you. More people should see this, but most don't want to be informed but entertained.

[@justinanderson617callme]

This is a classic piece of a video essay. Thank you for creating it!

[@Mr--_--M]

This is like the S3 Plan from Metal Gear Solid. IYKYK! Wild times we've been through, are in, and headed toward. Great documentary!

[@grandslamdiscoclub]

interesting to watch every two years.

[@zorasim]

Really wonderful documentary, thank you for creating and sharing it!!! Reads almost like a novel, somehow. So much story moves so gracefully. I have been studying Project Cybersyn and teach it in my own classes. This has broadened my understanding of that particular slice of history. I had to pause at 15:24. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not about Japanese cultural animosity to surrender in the way the West has narrated. The Soviet declaration of war on Japan had already pushed the Japanese towards talks of peace. The nuclear bombs primarily reflect the shifting priority of the United States, intimidation and containment of Soviet expansion. Plenty have written about this, from a broad political spectrum. Japan was an acceptable example of the United States' willingness to inflict mass civilian death.

[@01k]

Fantastic, thanks for sharing

[@brucejayasinghe1021]

Such a sick documentary

[@01k]

Rewatched it, and all I can say is that this is a great documentary. My major critique is the splatter vision of information, it could’ve been more cohesive. Otherwise it’s interesting

[@hereforawhile4799]

interesting stuff. Thank you.

[@hereforawhile4799]

I wonder when we will be able to upload ourselves. That would really mess with those who believe in a God. lol.

[@thufurmentat]

This is great. Thanks.

[@how.disability.justice]

1:16:27 "the more we modify our world, the more we must modify ourselves to exist within it." 1:17:24 "who is promoting which technologies and why?" "every technology is capable of producing it's own social arrangements, should [if] we allow it"

[@IchKomentiereNur123]

great documentary

[@lazyfreedom98]

leading edge stuff

[@MrBillsdad]

have they made any other presentations?????

[@projectifier]

Try "Psywar" pretty sure they are from the same producers as this film. The sub-title is something like "the real battlefield is the mind"

[@신범준-f5l]

Could you upload the subtitle please. I badly need it!

[@5iF3R]

Got the sub? I have activated the function for users to upload subs to this vid via YT. Otherwise give me the link o the sub and I'll do it.

[@how.disability.justice]

1:27:38 "[wars for raw material to make machines (which promise freedom from all oppressions)]"

[@kvltvr6967]

Does anyone have more information on the Root and Thorn team?

[@MS-rg6ku]

I contacted them, check out the comments on this channel (sort by newest) to see what they said. Sorry if you've gotten multiple notifications about me replying, KZbin kept deleting my comment for no apparent reason

[@Zengersbomb]

Can I use this video on a web-page whose is it? Who is the narrator?

[@5iF3R]

Read the description yet? I don't know in what way you mean to "use" it, but you should always remember to give credit where credit is due, please don't forget that ^^

[@exiles_dot_tv]

Anybody know what movie the clip at 28:45 is from? That looks amazing.

[@ting1232]

It's called Mirai Ninja en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirai_Ninja_(film)

[@exiles_dot_tv]

Awesome! Thank you

[@sf840]

Please add subtitles

[@how.disability.justice]

I'd like to help with captions

[@how.disability.justice]

1:02:40 "...the tools of science are not anywhere regarded as the people's tools, and people everywhere become alienated from that very science (which is their own)." 1:09:35 how do we "expunge technocracy without rejecting science" With covid pandemic and policy creating such destruction, if you didn't have data from other sources, and only your own senses and feedback from others nearby in daily life and online, how would you've figured out what was happening? And what would y'all's group do? Do you communicates about your symptoms with people you met? If not, no one would have the needed data. Would you exchange phone numbers or post a paper in a common area where people wrote their symptoms? If sick, would you ask for accommodation, or group supported home health care? Or are people limited to typical transactions only?

[@Carrienoburden]

4:3

[@evanhudson881]

Adam Curtis who?

[@reitakuhemphill]

You spelt it right.

[@evanhudson881]

@@reitakuhemphill i meant, this documentary is great, and in my opinion compares favorably with Adam Curtis' work.

[@ozgeozcelik8921]

statistical weapons of mass destruction could be eradicated, or not

[@how.disability.justice]

1:04:27 problems to solve 1:05:23 "...we are working on feedback systems to link the people to their government." when: centralize or decentralize the economy is "planning ininimical [or hostile] to freedom" how: an "end to beauracracy and muddle"

[@aaron.aaron.v.b.9448]

arrg. I just can't listen to this. Every topic touched on super interesting, some of them my favourite ones (though I'm not that super knowledgable in them) - like the Greco Baktrians and the Journey to the West lore. But you know, I just want a serious and critical assessment of cybersyn's capabilities and potential. This is just too serious to get lost in association.

[@joemcarthy8124]

FREE HELICOPTER RIDESSSSSSSSS!

[@greenbrickbox3392]

A dictator had his military murder, rape and torture thousands of civilians because they didn't agree with rule by the elite, what a funny joke

[@beepboop1044]

joemcarthy People were sexually assaulted and raped by torturers using rats, rodents, and dogs, in what was called the telephone, a Junta henchmen would make his victim listen to the sound of his family being tortured, democracy was systematically and publicly destroyed in Latin America for the 50th or so time, honestly everyone in the internet has said and done stupid shit but in the western world I only have say 80 years until I’m worm food, and tbh I’m glad I’ve never said something so Low brow and obnoxiously pointless as glorifying an old puppet piece of shit that Chileans hate.

[@erikareuenthal3219]

@@beepboop1044 who

[@whatabouttheearth]

Are you actually a little boy or are you just an intellectual neonate joking about some of the most repressive regimes to exist on earth?

[@whatabouttheearth]

Are you actually a little boy or are you just an intellectual neonate joking about some of the most repressive regimes to exist on earth?

[@massagegoblin224]

Watched fully, interesting subjects, but the information overload and the arcane jumping across multiple subjects often does more to confuse then to educate. I think the trade off for artistic approach and information is a bit off. Hope it doesn't put off some viewers. Still, worth a watch if people already have a general understanding of systems dynamics.