Half a century ago, South America was on the cutting edge of contesting the power of multinational companies in the sphere of telecommunications. More than that, a distinct blend of radical economics, cybernetics, and democratic politics led to the articulation of its own bold visions for how to use computing power in the name of non-corporate but people-centric development projects. As we confront the challenges presented by the Big Tech of today – from fake news to generative AI – it’s time to re-examine that experience. This is partly the task undertaken in the Santiago Boys podcast, which, in telling the story of Project Cybersyn and Stafford Beer’s involvement in it, aspires to recover some of those earlier experiences in order to inform our own present conundrums with Big Tech.
The Santiago Boys – Cybersyn’s Podcast
Content
A Panel with Evgeny Morozov,
Evgeny Morozov is the author of several award-winning books about technology and politics and, most recently, the producer and host of The Santiago Boys podcast. He is also the founder and publisher of The Syllabus, a knowledge discovery platform. Evgeny holds a PhD in History of Science from Harvard University and has previously been a visiting scholar at Georgetown and Stanford universities.
For participants in the webinar, you can find the (9 hours) podcast at:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6mhP2v4GZXzL2Zl6Ndmnne?si=26a01fc836554c38
You can also find an in-depth interview about the podcast (2 hours) at:
Recent Webinars
02.10.2024
VSM & Ethics
Stephen Harwood
Technology is Janus-faced with it having both a good and a dark side, this highlighting the ethics domain. This has implications for the implementation of technology in general. Extending the notion of technology implementation as one form of managed change, these implications extend to how we handle change, especially change in complex situations.
04.09.2024
The Topologies of Prediction: Management, Cybernetics, and Artificial Intelligence
Mark Johnson
AI’s recent advances mean that it is now a fundamental constituent of the environment for all of us, and the challenge for organisations is to adapt to it. This entails a deeper understanding of what the technology is, and this in turn invites a reinspection of cybernetic theory.
26.06.2024
From systems to entrepreneurial ecosystemic organizations. Exploring Haier’s RenDanHeYi.
Emanuele Quintarelli, Krishan Mathis
How can a global manufacturer with tens of thousands of employees not just survive but thrive in turbulent times? Guided by its CEO philosopher, the Chinese white goods appliance leader went through four decades of strategy, business, and organizational reinvention, rewriting everything we knew about management. Based on years of direct collaboration with Haier, Emanuele will conversate with Krishan to explore RenDanHeYi’s ability to get rid of hierarchical control, top-down people management, centralized budgeting, organizational bureaucracy, distance from the market. They will compare the foundational RenDanHeYi’s concepts with VSM pillars to show how more and more enterprises worldwide may embrace unprecedented levels of self-management, entrepreneurial initiative, customer centricity, diffused value sharing, and ecosystemic thinking.