[paganel]

I've left a related comment somewhere else in in the thread, but it's interesting that here in neighbouring Romania the practice/science of Cybernetics was quite well regarded almost until the communist government fell.

Its heyday had certainly been back in the '70s, as in the '80s the focus shifted to some other stuff thanks to energy inputs getting too expensive and us becoming bankrupt because of that (someone should write a history of the alternative energy sources tried by the communist government back then, some of which are now getting tested by the West, too), but for sure people weren't getting sent to prison because of it.

Here's [1] a list of Cybernetics-related books published before 1989 that I can find at an old-books store here in Bucharest, and that search reminded me that one of the main proponents of Cybernetics around these parts was Manea Manescu [2], a guy which had been prime-minister of communist Romania in the '70s (just before that he had been in charge of the State Planning Committee) and who stood by Ceausescu's side until the very end (that list of books I linked to includes a book with his name on it).

[1] https://www.targulcartii.ro/cauta/cibernetica?filter_name=ci...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manea_M%C4%83nescu