Books › How not to network a nation
How not to network a nation
298 pages
A fascinating, ironic exploration of how bureaucratic infighting suffocated a technological utopia.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like unearthing a forgotten timeline of the digital age, one where the future was imagined but ultimately strangled by red tape. The pace is steady and methodical, guiding you through the labyrinthine corridors of Soviet bureaucracy with a dry, perceptive irony. It immerses you in an atmosphere of intellectual stimulation tinged with the melancholy of lost potential, contrasting the soaring, utopian visions of cybernetic pioneers with the crushing reality of institutional gridlock. The prose is scholarly yet highly accessible, carefully untangling complex networks of power and technology without losing the human element. It is a deeply satisfying read for anyone captivated by the paradoxes of innovation, the friction between ideology and practice, and the hidden histories of the systems that run our world.
- Mood
- intellectually stimulating
- bureaucratic
- melancholic
- Tone
- analytical
- ironic
- scholarly
- insightful
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- technological utopianism · bureaucratic stagnation · the irony of innovation · ideology vs. practice · the architecture of power
- The writing
- The writing is meticulously researched and academically rigorous, yet laced with a dry, perceptive irony that keeps the history engaging.
- The arc
- The journey shifts from the heady, visionary optimism of cybernetic pioneers to the crushing, inevitable frustration of institutional gridlock.
- Who it's for
- Readers fascinated by the intersection of technology, politics, and alternate histories of the digital age will devour this.
About the book
"After examining the midcentury rise of cybernetics, the science of self-governing systems, and the emergence in the Soviet Union of economic cybernetics, Peters complicates this uneasy role reversal while chronicling the various Soviet attempts to build a 'unified information network.' Drawing on previously unknown archival and historical materials, he focuses on the final, and most ambitious of these projects, the All-State Automated System of Management (OGAS), and its principal promoter, Viktor M. Glushkov. Peters describes the rise and fall of OGAS -- its theoretical and practical reach, its vision of a national economy managed by network, the bureaucratic obstacles it encountered, and the institutional stalemate that killed it. Finally, he considers the implications of the Soviet experience for today's networked world."--Publisher description.
Description from Open Library.
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