A closer look
In the early 1970s, the Chilean government attempted to manage their entire socialist economy using telex machines, mainframe computers, and a control room that looked straight out of a 1960s sci-fi movie. Welcome to Project Cybersyn. Designed by British cybernetics pioneer Stafford Beer, the futuristic operations room featured fiberglass swivel chairs with built-in ashtrays and buttons to cycle through real-time economic data on giant projection screens. It was an incredibly ambitious attempt at data-driven governance before the modern internet existed, but a military coup in 1973 permanently disconnected the project, violently dismantling the sci-fi command center.
