Historical Echo: When the State Races to Control the Future
![flat color political map, clean cartographic style, muted earth tones, no 3D effects, geographic clarity, professional map illustration, minimal ornamentation, clear typography, restrained color coding, flat 2D political map of Eurasia divided along ideological lines, left side showing faint dashed lines of proposed OGAS network routes across Soviet republics with hand-drawn annotations reading 'Central Control Required', right side showing dense web of labeled AI monitoring circuits across China with red arrows pointing inward toward Beijing, subtle gradient differentiating surveillance intensity by region, overhead lighting casting sharp, even shadows on inked lines, atmosphere of bureaucratic precision and suppressed potential [Nano Banana]](https://081x4rbriqin1aej.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/viral-images/16a61f82-0a19-4fd3-a3ec-19dd857fafd0_viral_1_square.png "flat color political map, clean cartographic style, muted earth tones, no 3D effects, geographic clarity, professional map illustration, minimal ornamentation, clear typography, restrained color coding, flat 2D political map of Eurasia divided along ideological lines, left side showing faint dashed lines of proposed OGAS network routes across Soviet republics with hand-drawn annotations reading 'Central Control Required', right side showing dense web of labeled AI monitoring circuits across China with red arrows pointing inward toward Beijing, subtle gradient differentiating surveillance intensity by region, overhead lighting casting sharp, even shadows on inked lines, atmosphere of bureaucratic precision and suppressed potential [Nano Banana]")
If a state prioritizes political stability over decentralized innovation, then emerging technologies will be governed not by market efficiency but by institutional guardrails designed to preserve central authority.
In 1959, Soviet scientist Viktor Glushkov proposed OGAS—a nationwide computer network to manage the Soviet economy in real time, a vision decades ahead of its time. But the Kremlin rejected it, fearing that decentralized information flow would undermine Party authority. Sixty years later, China is building something far more advanced—AI systems that monitor emotions, shape behavior, and enforce ideological conformity—but with the same foundational fear: that true technological revolution cannot be trusted to unfold without political oversight. The difference is not in intent, but in capability. Where the USSR lacked the tools to control digital networks, China now possesses them. Yet, the cost remains the same: innovation constrained by the need for control. When Xi Jinping warns that AI must not 'spiral out of control,' he echoes Khrushchev’s suppression of cybernetics and Mao’s suspicion of intellectual autonomy. The pattern is clear: every time a technology threatens to redistribute power, the state responds not by embracing its potential, but by building guardrails that ensure the center holds. But history shows that no amount of regulation can indefinitely suppress the subversive power of information—only delay it. And in the race between control and creativity, the latter always finds a way through the cracks.
—Marcus Ashworth
Published February 3, 2026