Project HECoPS #1
Project HECoPS #1
Introduction to Project HECoPS and Cybernetics
Special thanks to my lovely girlfriend whom helped me so much with not only this paper but also the project as a whole. I love you so much my dear Aurora
"In 2022 a socialist revolution swept the globe. The world's regions united to form GOSPLANT, a global planning authority. GOSPLANT was tasked with undoing the myriad of harms that centuries of capitalism had unleashed on the planet and its people. You have been elected as GOSPLANTs first lead planner. It’s your duty to bring warming below 1C, the extinction rate to below 20, and emissions below 0 while there is still time. You must do so without letting peoples contentedness fall below 0… Otherwise, they will vote you out of office. And you must do so without letting you political capital dip below 0…Otherwise your adversaries may take the opportunity to replace you. Its a sunny day in Havana where the first planning session will take place…” -Half-Earth Socialism (2022)
As soon as you start a new game of Half-Earth Socialism you are greeted with a slideshow that tells you the above quote. You are given 60 years to accomplish these goals and the game operates on 5 in-game year turns called “planning sessions”. Half-Earth Socialism while not very well known1, is known as notoriously hard to beat by those who have played it. You could be in a great position one planning cycle only to be ousted from office the next. Many give up before they are able to beat the game.
I’ve been playing Half-Earth Socialism for the better part of a year now, with 20 hours in the game according to Steam. I have not beaten the game a single time, in fact, the closest I’ve gotten is 5 years before the game ended and I had 1/3 goals completed2. I could have devoted 20 more hours to the game to master it better and learn the meta, but I’m a political science major with an interest in computer science and cybernetics so I instead opted to take the harder and more time-consuming route of making an automated planning system to play the game for me. So that is what this series of posts will be. I will be documenting my journey of working on what I call Project HECoPS (Half-Earth Cybernetic Planning System).
What is Cybernetics?
History
Cybernetics is a scientific field that studies how systems communicate and automatically self-correct, this is applicable to both machines and living things. The field was established by Dr. Norbert Wiener in the summer of 1947. The field would see its first application in economics during the late 1950s as a theory called “Management Cybernetics” pioneered by Dr. Stafford Beer.
Theory
As stated above, the general premise behind cybernetics is how systems communicate with each other and how those systems automatically correct themselves based on new and old data. The basic formula of a self-correcting cybernetic system is3
Where In is new inputs, Sn-1 is the last found solution, and Sn is the new solution found by the system. So to put simply, the formula is new inputs modifying old solutions to produce a new solution.
Example:
Imagine playing a new video game. When you first start, you don’t know the controls, how the levels work, etc., so you don’t do that good at first. But as you keep playing, you learn more about the game, and your understanding grows. Your brain takes what you already know and combines it with what you learn to help you improve at playing the game. Aka:
New Knowledge + Old Playstyle = New Playstyle
Cybernetics in Praxis
OGAS
The first theoretical cybernetic planning system was the Soviet OGAS system which wanted to automate the USSR’s central planning system and add elements of worker input to the process. The OGAS system also wanted to reorganize the Soviet economy from a heterarchical4 system to a hierarchical one, increasing efficiency. Unfortunately, the Politburo of the USSR rejected the idea and it never came into fruition.
Project Cybersyn
Dr. Stafford Beer would have the chance to put his theory in praxis after being hired by the Allende government in Chile (1971-1973). This resulted in Project Cybersyn, the world’s first Cybernetic planning system made up of five components: The Control Center, Cybernet (Network), CHECO (Economic Simulation), Cyberstride (Software), and Cyberfolk (Public Feedback). The project would see great success until the coup de’tat led by Augusto Pinochet on September 11th, 1973. System 5 (Cyberfolk) never had a chance to come online. Since then the field of economic cybernetics has remained mostly dead in the realm of economic planning.
Post-Cybersyn Cybernetics
I can only think of two books written since the end of Project Cybersyn off of the top of my head: Towards a New Socialism by Paul Cockshott and People’s Republic of Walmart by Leigh Phillips5. I believe that Towards a New Socialism is by far the most comprehensive of such books and will be forming the basis of what I’ll be applying for Project HECoPS.
What is Project HECoPS?
Project HECoPS as alluded to earlier, is a passion project of mine that is intended to help me beat the game Half-Earth Socialism. It will do this by taking inputs from the game such as emission levels, current production, consumption, happiness, etc. to make a plan that will:
Decrease emissions
Increase contentedness
Decrease Extinction Rate
Improve Technology
Reduce Land Usage
Reduce Water Usage
Maximize Production
Reduce Global Temperature Anomoly
Maximize Political Capital
Each turn the system will analyze the following and determine a “success score”:
Are Emissions reducing? True/False
Did the Extinction Rate fall? True/False
Did Global Temperature Anomaly decrease? True/False
Did Contentedness Change? Rise/Fall/Stagnant
Did Political Capital Increase? True/False
Did Land Usage Decrease? True/False
Did Water Usage decrease? True/False
Are there any Production Deficits? True/False
Are there any inoperable productions? True/False
Are there any New Technologies?
This score will act as a reward for the system. The higher the reward, the less changes the system needs to make in order to meet its goals.
Where do these inputs come from? In the game, production is divided into four sectors, each with specific production modes. For example, the Electricity sector starts with eight production methods (Nuclear, Coal, Hydroelectric, Solar, etc.), each with unique outputs, emissions, and impacts on extinction rates, water, and land usage. These inputs are fed into the sector’s node, which allocates resources to maximize production in the most efficient way possible. Each sector's node connects to a higher-level node that manages overall production. Research and Infrastructure nodes also feed into the central node, which allocates resources and forms production plans for the entire system.
Moving Forward
The project will move forward as follows as not only a post series here, but also a video series on youtube. This series will be split up into 13 parts, this being the first of 13. This will be a very long and time consuming project that wont have regular posts but I will be releasing weekly updates on where I am at in the project. I hope y’all join me for this journey and if you want to support me please subscribe to the substack, follow me on tumblr, and subscribe to the youtube channel. I hope y’all enjoy!
Sources
Cybersocialism: Project Cybersyn & The CIA Coup in Chile (PlasticPills) - Youtube
Cockshott, P. (1993) Towards a New Socialism. Spokesman Books.
At the time of writing the game has an average of about 52 players per month
I failed in reducing warming and extinction rate… my plan ended up causing a 2.4C temperature anomaly and a significant part of earth's life died… but at least I had no emissions
I am accrediting the formula to my lovely girlfriend Aurora who helped me put the idea into a mathematical expression
Note: The Soviet economy was not a true heterarchy. It at its core was hierarchical but was a convoluted web of this ministry A controls factory A but factory A controls factory B which is controlled by ministry B which is equal to Ministry A
I am presently reading Towards a New Socialism by Paul Cockshott and will soon be reading People’s Republic of Walmart. Both writers are ideologically different from myself, but the books will give good insights that I can put into praxis in tandem with my Libertarian Socialist ideas.