3. British media response to Cybersyn

Stafford Beer, naturally, did not anticipate the response that Project Cybersyn would elicit in the United Kingdom. The first story appeared in the Observer in early January of 1973, apparently based on a presentation Beer had given to a group of radical scientists and technologists, possibly those connected to his friend Jonathan Rosenhead.

A summary of this presentation was included in a newsletter circulated by this group, and it seems this is what found its way to the Observer.

“Chile Run by Computer” article in the Observer

One alarming revelation in the article was the suggestion that Beer was collaborating on a sort of “Big Brother” system for Allende. The article presented the system in much stronger terms than it truly was, which led to an onslaught of criticisms, including those from Joe Hanlon in the New Scientist.

The most severe critique came from another radical science journal, Science for People. Here, Beer faced similar criticisms that Allende himself – a fellow technocrat from the middle and upper classes – often encountered from the extreme left. Some members of the Project Cybersyn team, including a Brazilian named Carlos Senna, penned angry rebuttals. 

Carlos Senna’s letter to Science for People