TY - JOUR
T1 - Modeling computers and computer models
T2 - Manufacturing economic-planning projects in cold war taiwan, 1959-1968
AU - Tinn, Honghong
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/10
Y1 - 2018/10
N2 - This article traces the process in which Taiwanese economic bureaucrats, a Cornell economics professor, and pioneering computer users worked together to visualize, represent, and make sense of economic activities in Taiwan through inter-industry input-output tables. The article highlights three ways in which the production of economic knowledge was contingent on computer power and geopolitics. First, it unpacks the participation of Taiwanese historical actors at the frontlines of Cold War economic competition between Taiwan and China. Second, the article reveals how U.S. and UN aid provided the necessary technological resources for relevant econometric calculations. Finally, the stochastic nature of economic planning is illustrated in the constant adjustment of inter-industry tables to the capacity of available computers for its arduous calculation and interpretation of incomprehensive data. In sum, this article elaborates on the critical role of computing technology during the Cold War, especially in an East Asian geopolitical context.
AB - This article traces the process in which Taiwanese economic bureaucrats, a Cornell economics professor, and pioneering computer users worked together to visualize, represent, and make sense of economic activities in Taiwan through inter-industry input-output tables. The article highlights three ways in which the production of economic knowledge was contingent on computer power and geopolitics. First, it unpacks the participation of Taiwanese historical actors at the frontlines of Cold War economic competition between Taiwan and China. Second, the article reveals how U.S. and UN aid provided the necessary technological resources for relevant econometric calculations. Finally, the stochastic nature of economic planning is illustrated in the constant adjustment of inter-industry tables to the capacity of available computers for its arduous calculation and interpretation of incomprehensive data. In sum, this article elaborates on the critical role of computing technology during the Cold War, especially in an East Asian geopolitical context.
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U2 - 10.1353/tech.2018.0150
DO - 10.1353/tech.2018.0150
M3 - Article
C2 - 30595597
AN - SCOPUS:85059258852
SN - 0040-165X
VL - 59
SP - S66-S99
JO - Technology and Culture
JF - Technology and Culture
IS - 4
ER -