The Soviets and the Internet

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i think what you have described there is so important, right, because it gives us a picture of how the ogas network was planned to be. In fact, in some ways, a network as we imagine it is not a network in practice. It's not a surprise that the soviet state imagines itself as a hierarchy, but in practice functions as a treadmill of competition and unregulated backbiting. And ultimately, nobody was planning to create these distributed networks with mass surveillance yet. So i note that this kind of ambiguity happening within the Janus perpa janus research laboratory at the defense department will take money from congress, but then we'll turn around and spend it on basic

Paris Marx is joined by Benjamin Peters to discuss the proposals for national computer networks in the Soviet Union, the challenges they faced in getting approval, and what lessons they hold for how we think about networks.

Benjamin Peters is the author of “How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet” and the co-editor of “Your Computer Is On Fire.” He’s also the Hazel Rogers Associate Professor at the University of Tulsa and affiliated faculty at Yale Law School. Follow Ben on Twitter as @bjpeters.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

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