HowNottoNetworkaNation

& Society; author of The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It

Between 1959 and 1989, the Soviet Union made several failed attempts to construct a nationwide computer network. In contrast, ARPANET, the American precursor to the Internet, went live in 1969. In How Not to Network a Nation, Benjamin Peters investigates why the Soviet network failed while the American network succeeded, and he argues that the reverse of Cold War stereotypes is true. Peters maintains that the ARPANET was successful due to state subsidies and collaborative research environments, while unregulated competition among self-serving institutions, bureaucrats, and others hampered the Soviet network projects. He describes the midcentury rise of cybernetics and the emergence of economic cybernetics, which necessitated a “unified information network.” Peters focuses on the All-State Automated System of Management (OGAS), the most impressive of the Soviet attempts at network building, and its promoter, Viktor M. Glushkov. He chronicles OGAS’ theoretical and practical reach, its institutional limitations, bureaucratic obstacles, and its eventual failure. Peters draws on previously unknown archival and historical materials to detail the implications of the Soviet experience for today’s networked world.

In endorsements, Todd Gitlin, Professor and Chair of the PhD Program in Communications at Columbia University, calls Peters’s book a “scintillating” explanation of how the Soviet Union efforts to manage a command economy left them without either command or an economy. Similarly, Jonathan Zittrain, Professor of Law and Computer Science at Harvard University and Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, hails the book as an essential addition to the history of the Internet that highlights the necessity of “generativity and openness” for networked innovation.

作者简介

BenjaminPetersisAssistantProfessorintheDepartmentofCommunicationattheUniversityofTulsaandaffiliatedfacultyattheInformationSocietyProjectatYaleLawSchool.