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Event Details:
Join us for a talk by Aro Velmet (University of Southern California) on:
The Information Revolution: How Estonian Cyberneticians Invented the Information Age in the Soviet Empire
Estonia is often portrayed as the world’s most advanced „digital state, “ where citizens can vote, do their taxes, and renew their driver’s license, all online. But before the „digital state,“ there was the „National Automated Control System." From the 1960s, cyberneticians, sociologists, and management scientists in Ukraine, Estonia, Novosibirsk, and elsewhere imagined constructing a network of data centers – the NACS – that would revitalize the Soviet empire. They failed in building this network, but their expertise catalyzed large social movements that ultimately contributed to the empire’s collapse.
This talk provides a history of the information age in the Soviet Union. This history is relevant not only because expertise from this period led to some of the most innovative work in digital public infrastructure in 1990s Estonia but also because visionaries then were grappling with questions that remain relevant today: What is the relationship between digital technology and the state? What are the risks and rewards of collecting and processing data about the public? And can technology aid or disrupt the functioning of an authoritarian state?
Aro Velmet is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern California. He is a visiting researcher at the Davis Center at Princeton University and a visiting researcher at the Institute of Social Studies at the University of Tartu. He writes about technological utopias and the history of science in a variety of imperial and post-imperial contexts. His first book, Pasteur’s Empire (Oxford University Press, 2020), looked at how bacteriologists reimagined imperial governance in early twentieth century France. His current project, The Information Revolution, looks at how computer engineers reimagined imperial governance in late twentieth century Soviet Union.
The talk will be followed by a Q&A session and screening of the film, "Disco and Atomic War" (2009).
"The film tells the story of a strange kind of information war, where a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular culture. And loses. It was a time when it was possible for erotic film star Emmanuelle to bring down the Red Army and MacGyver to outdo an entire school administration. It is a film about our generation, who were unknowingly brought to the front line of the Cold War. Western popular culture had an incomparable role shaping Soviet children's world views in those days. Finnish television was a window to a world of dreams that the authorities could not block in any way. Though Finnish channels were banned, many households found some way to access the forbidden fruit." – Warsaw Film Festival
Free and open to the public. Registration is requested.
From April to May, Stanford Libraries hosts three public talks that are related to the "Why Estonia?" exhibit in Green Library and that explore e-Estonia’s history, achievements, challenges, and the potential applicability of its e-governance model in the U.S.:
This event is part of Global Conversations, a series of talks, lectures, and seminars hosted by Stanford University Libraries and Vabamu with the goal of educating scholars, students, leaders, and the public on the benefits of but also challenges related to sustaining freedom.