“Investments in Happiness”, or the Governmental Machine of Consciousness

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the OGAS system developed by the Soviet cyberneticist Viktor Glushkov. This system was understood by him not only as a radical new step in the management of the planned Soviet economy, but also as a moral and educational machine of subjectivation, producing a “happy” subject through cybernetic feedback mechanisms. According to Glushkov, abundance is a historical concept determined by libidinal dynamics: needs are constantly growing, which means that their complete and final satisfaction is unattainable. Scarcity is characteristic of all types of human society, including, apparently, the communist one. And resources will always and everywhere be limited. This means that it is necessary to educate such a subject in whom “consciousness” will work as a built-in defense against libidinal “surplus”. This subject must be freed from the frustration of insatiable desire, while simultaneously receiving a new technical opportunity to seek those areas of activity in which they could most fully deploy the wealth of their abilities. The creative realization of abilities and non-authoritarian regulation of needs constitute the formula of "happiness". However, here we are still dealing with a subject who is happy but still controlled. Unlike the classics of Marxism, Glushkov assumed that in the communist future, society will control not only things, but also people — even if this will be indirect control (and also without a repressive component), but through influencing the environment — or rather, the complex interweaving of various environments, primarily technical and social. The structure and effects of Academician Glushkov's communist techno-governmentality will be the focus of the study.