Economic cybernetics in Chile

One of the most interesting experiments with computerised planning and control of the economy was undertaken in Chile under the Allende government in the years 1972 to 1973. The system was designed by Stafford Beer and is described in his…

Cybernetics of Governance: The Cybersyn Project Chile 1971-1973

Introduction Chile went into a highly significant political process in the early 1970s. It was an attempt to have a socialist revolution in freedom. The government of Presidente Salvador Allende, supported by political forces from the centre-left to the extreme…

Stafford Beer: Eudemony, Viability and Autonomy

What if the global economy were structured, not to send wealth into the hands of a tiny group of oligarchs, but rather to ensure the best possible lives for everyone, ensuring that people lived fulfilling lives free from want, engaged…

La crise est bien celle du capitalisme

Note introductive [*] au texte de Jean-Marie Harribey L’article qu’on va lire de Jean-Marie Harribey a été publié originalement en 2016. Il explique, parmi d’autres choses, pourquoi la pandémie de la Covid-19 a pu se répandre comme une traînée de…

Cybersocialism: a reassessment of the socialist calculation debate

Abstract This article presents a new approach to the socialist calculation debate. I focus particularly on the question of how to integrate information of consumers’s preferences and argue that the objections raised by Austrian economists against the socialist model proposed…