<Literature Log> How the Computer Got Its Revenge on the Soviet Union

• Written by Slava Gerovtich.

• The article ”The peculiar history of computers in the Soviet Union” by Slava Gerovtich provides a detailed account of the topic.

  • The article quotes Slava Gerovtich, so it is natural that it contains his perspective.

• Criticism of Cybernetics:

  • First, Agapov criticized it.
  • Then, Iaroshevskii and others followed.

    • He went on to cite Wiener’s well-known remark that the computer revolution was “bound to devalue the human brain” in the same way that the industrial revolution had devalued the human arm.

      • Wiener and Iaroshevskii had different interpretations of language.

    • He accused Wiener of reducing human thought to formal operations with signs, and labeled cybernetics a “modish pseudo-theory” fabricated by “philosophizing ignoramuses” and “utterly hostile to the people and to science.”

  • Agapov and Iaroshevskii had not read much of Wiener’s papers.
    • In fact, after Agapov’s article, Wiener’s books disappeared from the library, so Iaroshevskii could hardly read them.

• The Soviet Union began to secretly pursue military computing while condemning the West for doing the same.

  • Wiener’s words were expanded and exaggerated to create an ideological straw man.
  • The article provides specific examples.

  • ~ and the critics concluded that cybernetics was marching along a “straight road toward open idealism and religion” (both were, of course, pejorative terms in the Soviet Union)

    • #idealism

• There were also philosophical criticisms.

  • Wiener’s ideas can be seen as capturing the human brain as “mechanical connection and signaling,” which is Materialism.
  • However, it was also said to be Idealism (blu3mo) I don’t understand this part well, I will add more if I understand it.
  • It criticized Wiener for deviating from Dialectical Materialism, the Soviet philosophy of science, in both materialistic and idealistic directions.
    • I still don’t understand it well, but at least if it is materialistic, it should be better for the Soviet Union?

Philosophers chimed in, bashing cybernetics for “clinging to the decrepit remnants of idealistic philosophy,” as well as for being “mechanistic” in reducing the activity of the human brain to “mechanical connection and signaling.” Cybernetics, they claimed, was doubly guilty. It deviated from dialectical materialism, the official Soviet philosophy of science, in two opposite directions—toward idealism and toward mechanicism—at the same time. The media portrayed it as both “idealistic” and “mechanistic,” “utopian” and “dystopian,” “technocratic” and “pessimistic,” a “pseudo-science” and a dangerous weapon of Western military aggression. Soviet critics ignored, or possibly were unaware of, Wiener’s openly pacifist stand, which he had taken after Hiroshima, and his refusal to participate in military research. Ask: how is it idealistic

• While criticizing Western computer technology, the Soviet Union continued its own development internally.

  • This is related to Doublethink in 1984.

• Researchers were careful not to use language that would be ideologically problematic.

  • Even the phrase “logical operations” was risky, because it might be interpreted as implying that machines could think. Instead of “computer memory,” researchers used the more neutral, technical term, “storage.” “Information” was replaced by “data,” and “information theory” by the convoluted expression “the statistical theory of electrical signal transmission with noise.”

• After Khrushchev’s era, there was a sudden change.

  • Journals that had criticized cybernetics also changed their attitude.

  • Instead of trying to reconcile it with dialectical materialism, the authors simply stated that it works, and therefore it must be ideologically correct.

• There was a push to use it in planned economy.

  • researchers proposed to link together all Soviet enterprises through a unified national computer network which would process economic information in real time and optimize the entire economy.

  • A large amount of resources were invested.
  • The United States became wary of this, as it would be problematic if cybernetics were to grow in the Soviet Union.

• However, introducing computers without reforming the party organization led to failure.

  • It was incompatible with the bureaucratic structure.

Big Brother, who wanted to see everything and know everything, became overwhelmed with information that was often distorted by lower-level officials trying to present a rosy picture.

#technological_determinism_and_cybernetics_in_the_cold_war http://nautil.us/issue/23/dominoes/how-the-computer-got-its-revenge-on-the-soviet-union