Audiobook10 hours
How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet (Information Policy)
Written by Benjamin Peters
Narrated by Dana Hickox
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
About this audiobook
Between 1959 and 1989, Soviet scientists and officials made numerous attempts to network their nation -- to construct a nationwide computer network. None of these attempts succeeded, and the enterprise had been abandoned by the time the Soviet Union fell apart. Meanwhile, ARPANET, the American precursor to the Internet, went online in 1969. Why did the Soviet network, with top-level scientists and patriotic incentives, fail while the American network succeeded? In How Not to Network a Nation, Benjamin Peters reverses the usual cold war dualities and argues that the American ARPANET took shape thanks to well-managed state subsidies and collaborative research environments and the Soviet network projects stumbled because of unregulated competition among self-interested institutions, bureaucrats, and others. The capitalists behaved like socialists while the socialists behaved like capitalists.
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.
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.
Related to How Not to Network a Nation
Related audiobooks
Pax Transatlantica: America and Europe in the post-Cold War Era 1st Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922-1945, Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRestricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Soviet Century: Archaeology of a Lost World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Silicon States: The Power and Politics of Big Tech and What It Means for Our Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Commerce: How a New Illicit Economy Is Threatening Our Future Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Empire of Sand: How Britain Made the Middle East Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStates of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDigital Renaissance: What Data and Economics Tell Us about the Future of Popular Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silicon City: San Francisco in the Long Shadow of the Valley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Money and Power: The World Leaders Who Changed Economics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlgorithms for the People: Democracy in the Age of AI Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rational Fog: Science and Technology in Modern War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThings Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Political Thought of Xi Jinping Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Economics For You
The Intelligent Investor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Economics 101: How the World Works Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nudge: The Final Edition: Improving Decisions About Money, Health, And The Environment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why the Rich Are Getting Richer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chip War: The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marvel Comics: The Untold Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freakonomics Rev Ed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A History of the United States in Five Crashes: Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How the World Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract for a Better Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for How Not to Network a Nation
Rating: 2.8333333 out of 5 stars
3/5
6 ratings0 reviews