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IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Published by the IEEE Computer Society 1058-6180/03/$17.00 © 2003 IEEE Ed in a Readable, Engaging Fashion, Full of the David L

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IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Published by the IEEE Computer Society 1058-6180/03/$17.00 © 2003 IEEE Ed in a Readable, Engaging Fashion, Full of the David L Reviews Raul Rojas, Editor Free University of Berlin Gerovitch, Slava, From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A of scientific objectivity, characterized by rigorous think- History of Soviet Cybernetics, MIT Press, 2002, ISBN 0- ing, logical clarity, and quantitative precision. Aleksei 262-07232-7, 383 pp., $37.95. Lyapunov (recipient of an IEEE Computer Pioneer Award Slava Gerovitch’s From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A in 1996) was an indefatigable proponent of the notion History of Soviet Cybernetics is a marvelous account of the that cybernetics could provide a single overarching con- history of Soviet cybernetics, from its roots in the work ceptual framework, methodology, and terminology for use of Norbert Wiener and Andrei Kolmogorov on control in the entire family of life and social sciences. Through the systems through its rise in Soviet society in the 1950s and efforts of the politically savvy former Deputy Defense 1960s, and its fall in the 1970s. Throughout, Gerovitch Minister Aksel Berg, cybernetics rose to prominence with- examines his subject through the distinctive, yet extreme- in the Academy of Sciences and was included in the 1961 ly appropriate lens of language. A proper understanding Program of the Communist Party as one of the sciences of science and technology anywhere in the world must crucial to the construction of communism. consider the interweaving influences of political, ideo- Soviet cybernetics became a victim of its own success. logical, economic, and social factors. Adding language to Cyberneticists sought to broaden the application of this mix is particularly appropriate in a study of science cybernetics to government and management, proposing and technology in the Soviet context, where the rules of an ambitious plan for nationwide, optimal planning and discourse provided the public stage within which all management. As a strategy, cybernetics ultimately other activities were carried out and evaluated. foundered on the misplaced assumption that “optimal Gerovitch begins his account with a discussion of planning and control” (p. 256) of the Soviet economy newspeak, the propaganda-sounding ideological language could be achieved through the application of mathemat- of Soviet discourse. Newspeak was pervasive. Any public ical models and computing technology. (As one Soviet endeavor had to be packaged and justified according to chemical plant manager put it, “If our machinists were the rules and terminology of this linguistic medium. not drunk, the efficiency would have skyrocketed with- Filled with value-laden, meaningless terms (such as mate- out any computers” [p. 278].) As a philosophy of science rialism, formalism, mechanism, reactionary, criticism, and society, however, its failure can be observed through and subjectivism) that could be applied across a broad the linguistic lens. The scientific and political establish- spectrum of scientific, social, and political activity, ment appropriated the language of cybernetics for its own newspeak became the shared language of public dis- purposes. Basic principles of Soviet government were course. It became a language of negotiation between the translated into cybernetic terms, with the Communist Soviet political and scientific communities, translating Party playing the role of controller in the scientific man- science into ideology and politics and vice versa. agement of society. Like the terminology of newspeak, Gerovitch describes the relationship between Soviet sci- the vocabulary of cybernetics had become value-laden, entists and politicians as a Möbius strip in which it is no but meaningless, and a tool in the hands of the estab- longer clear who is on which side. lishment for the maintenance of the status quo. Originally branded as a “reactionary pseudo-science” Gerovitch clearly demonstrates that Soviet cybernet- and “ideological weapon of imperialism reaction” in ics is a much broader phenomenon than computing or newspeak (p. 306), cybernetics was rehabilitated in the information technology. Readers seeking a detailed late 1950s as part of the de-Stalinization of Soviet science. account of the emergence of computing within the Gerovitch convincingly describes the fascinating trans- Soviet Union may be disappointed at not finding more formation of cybernetics from an ideologically tarnished detail on the work of Lebedev, Bruk, or on the Soviets’ collection of man–machine analogies to an officially rec- decision to adopt the IBM mainframe architecture in ognized, and almost canonized, philosophical framework support of their economic planning and management of science, economics, and management. The language efforts in the 1970s. However, the narrower field of of cybernetics became the new language of public dis- Soviet computing cannot be fully understood without course—cyberspeak. the background of cybernetics, and it is here that During the political thaw of Nikita Khrushchev in the Gerovitch has done a great service to scholars of com- late 1950s, Soviet cyberneticians openly challenged puting, technology, and science. Moreover, he has newspeak and promoted cybernetics as a new foundation described the context within which Soviet science exist- 70 IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Published by the IEEE Computer Society 1058-6180/03/$17.00 © 2003 IEEE ed in a readable, engaging fashion, full of the David L. Boslaugh, IEEE CS Press, 1999), where details of people, events, and political and it is credited as the origin of some of the con- intellectual currents that make such accounts cepts later adopted by the US Navy in their first interesting. command and control system. Vardalas details The audience for this book should not be this project and the political situations it creat- limited to historians. Parallels exist between the ed. He does a masterful job weaving World War role of language in science and politics as II history and its effects into the narrative of described by Gerovitch and contemporary soci- how the Royal Canadian Navy and the Defense ety. Identifying the value-laden but meaning- Research Board did their work in that era. less terms that frame the discourse between When discussing complex technical issues scientists, politicians, and society today is left (such as the role of analog versus digital signals as an exercise for the reader. in DATAR’s usefulness in tracking both sub- Peter Wolcott marines and planes), Vardalas manages to give University of Nebraska at Omaha accurate, yet brief, descriptions that are easily [email protected] understood by readers with little technical background. From this point of view the book Vardalas, John, The Computer Revolution in is useful for both historians versed in the tech- Canada: Building National Technological nology and those whose leanings are more to Competence, MIT Press, 2001, ISBN 0-262- the social or business issues he raises. 22064-4, 409 pp., $45.00. He also does a wonderful job of putting the Jim Cortada, a well-known author of com- technology into perspective. From our 21st puter history material, commented on the back century view it seems obvious that the transis- cover that Varadalas’ book is “a model study of tor was a superior device to the vaccuum tube. how to look at the origins of computing in any In chapter 3, however, Vardalas makes a point nation.” Although little known or appreciated, of giving evidence that this was not at all clear Canada has a long history in the development in the early 1950s. of digital electronics and computers. While lit- Vardalas also describes how military tech- tle of the effort resulted in a major domestic nology quickly moved into civilian uses. He computer manufacturing capability, it certain- explains how the same people created first a ly provided Canada, and the world, with ideas postal-sorting machine and then a check-sort- and expertise that influenced many of the com- ing facility that was used in major US banks puter facilities we use today. during their system testing to automate the Vardalas begins with the story of how the banking industry. University of Toronto began to construct its There are simply too many stories included own computer, known as UTEC, and later in this work to comment on them all. It goes purchased one of the first Ferranti Mark I com- into detail on subjects ranging from the devel- puters. The Mark I was one of the earliest oper- opment of the Ferranti-Packard PF6000 com- ational machines in North America and made puter (which later became the design for the significant contributions to various research British ICT 1900 series of machines) to the cre- groups both in Canada and the US. It—along ation of systems to do numerical control of tools with the group that ran it (headed by Kelly by the Sperry Gyroscope Company of Canada. Gotlieb)—made huge contributions to both He brings all the stories together with a final computer science and technological systems, chapter. Integrating the ideas into a bigger pic- ranging from the St. Lawrence Seaway to the ture, he shows how all of this created the com- earliest airline reservation systems. puter revolution in Canada and how it related Because of their experience in World War II, to the rest of the world. the Canadian military wanted to develop its The level of detail is extraordinary and this own domestic self-reliance in various areas and is one of the joys of the book. Additional detail saw digital electronics as being fundamental to is available in 100 pages of endnotes. It must their future role. Among the research they per- also be said that this level of detail occasional- formed, was a project known as Digital Auto- ly makes the book a difficult read but fortu- mated Tracking and Resolving (DATAR). This nately it is possible to skim the parts that do was an early command and control system for not interest you without losing the overall ships to exchange tactical and surveillance thread of the story. data. The project is briefly mentioned in anoth- Michael R.
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