Project Cybersyn was an early 1970s attempt to use networked computers for economic management in Allende's Chile, involving British cyberneticist Stafford Beer. The system had four components: a telex network linking factories to CORFO, Cyberstride anomaly detection software, CHECO macroeconomic simulation model, and an operations room.

Only the telex network proved useful, mainly for coordinating government trucks during a 1972 trucking strike. Cyberstride's lag time made it ineffective for early problem detection, and the centralized system didn't involve workers or decentralize control as intended. CHECO models were never consulted by decision-makers, and the operations room displayed manually-drawn charts rather than live data.

The project, while visually iconic, failed to achieve its cybernetic goals due to technological limitations of the early 1970s and its inherently centralized architecture. Medina's research indicates that when problems were detected, alerts went simultaneously to factory managers, CORFO's telex room, and project director Raul Espejo, undermining the intended enterprise autonomy.

Contemporary interest in Cybersyn stems partly from the period glamour of its control room photographs and the tragic fate of Allende's government.