Title: A socio-technical history of the Internet that will definitely appeal to many HN readers: Ben Peters, author of &quot;How Not to Network a Nation&quot;, discusses the history of Soviet cybernetics and computer networks on Sean&#x27;s Russia Blog podcast episode &quot;The Stillbirth of the Soviet Internet&quot;.<p>In the interview, Peters states the reason the Internet appeared in Silicon Valley and not near Soviet Kiev was that &quot;the capitalists behaved like socialists while the socialists behaved like capitalists&quot;. This challenges conventional notions about the relationship between society and technology and contradicts the often-stated belief about laissez faire economic freedoms and capitalism being necessary for the high-tech booms.<p>Peters also ponders what we might learn about current Internet state surveillance trends, such as the now-known NSA programs, by looking at the 1960&#x27;s Soviet project called OGAS (&quot;obshche-gosudarstvennaia avtomatizirovannaia sistema&quot;). Its full title in English unashamedly gives away its intentions: &quot;All-State Automated System for the Gathering and Processing of Information for the Accounting, Planning, and Governance of the National Economy, USSR&quot;.
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