Cybernetic Socialism Reading List

It is through the science of cybernetics that we find answers to many of the economic and social problems of 20th century socialism.
Cybernetics will be instrumental in the building of 21st century socialism and yet it is rarely discussed among the contemporary left.
Because of this I’ve made this site which I hope will act as an organised, comprehensive reading list for educating yourself on cybernetics. Enjoy!

If you have any text suggestions or comments you can contact me on Twitter @fagxolotl

This site is a work in progress, it was last updated June 2021.

Intermediate Texts

Key Thinkers

Leonid Kantorovich

Victor Glushkov

Vanguard Scientists Building 21st Century Socialism

Starter Texts

Ernesto ‘Ché’ Guevara: A Rebel against Soviet Political Economy

The People’s Republic of Walmart

Towards a New Socialism

Intermediate Texts

Ché Guevara: The Economics of Revolution

Cybernetic Revolutionaries

From Newspeak to Cyberspeak, A History of Soviet Cybernetics

How Not to Network a Nation

Luxury Communism – A Conversation between Mark Fisher and Judy Thorne

Advanced Texts

Brain of the Firm

Designing Freedom

Articles

A Cyber-Socialism at Home and Abroad: Bulgarian Modernisation, Computers, and the World, 1967-1989

Big Data, Algorithmic Regulation, and the History of the Cybersyn Project in Chile, 1971–1973

“Capitalism only Works in Theory”: Leigh Phillips’ & Michael Rozworski’s People’s Republic of Walmart

Design of Electronic/Electrical Systems in the Soviet Union From Krushchev’s Thaw To Gorbachev’s Perestroika

OGAS History Site (Russian)

OGAS project. How Soviet cybernetics almost created the Internet, iPads and Yandex Traffic jams (Russian)

Principles of a Postcapitalist Economy

Project Cybersyn: the afterlife of Chile’s socialist internet

Rationality and Distribution in the Socialist Economy

Simulating Socialism (1): Creating a Computer Simulation of a Socialist Economy

Simulating Socialism (2): Optimising Production Plans

Simulating Socialism (3): Mathematically Derived Valuations

Simulating Socialism (4): Consumption

InterNyet: why the Soviet Union did not build a nationwide computer network

Virtual Computer Museum (Russian)

Videos

Cybernetics (1990)

Interview Eden Medina over Project Cybersyn

Left Forum hosts Dr Paul Cockshott on Cybersocialism

Paul Cockshott Lecture on Modern Socialism with Computers

Paul Cockshott YouTube Channel

Victor Glushkkov’s idea of a Soviet computer network

Why is China promoting the digital yuan?

Podcasts

General Intellect Unit

Tech Won’t Save Us

If you happen to purchase any hard copies of any of the texts featured, please make an effort to purchase them from radical, co-operative bookstores – or preowned.

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