Wired History. Computers, Humans, and the Making of Latin American Futures (1950s–2000s)core
WIRED · Horizon Europe grant · 2026-10-01–2031-09-30
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About the data
Source: CORDIS (official EU open data), Horizon Europe. Framework HORIZON · call ERC-2025-COG · scheme HORIZON-ERC · topic ERC-2025-COG. CORDIS record →
Objective
After World War II, democratic presidents, revolutionaries, dictators, managers, scientists, journalists, and military officials across Latin America, as in other parts of the world, heralded the digital computer as a “key to the future.”However, the introduction of computers to Latin America from 1958 onward did not, on its own, unlock a predetermined future. The relationship between technology and society is far more complex. Technology is deeply intertwined with human agency: only networks of humans and machines can drive meaningful change. To fully understand the significance of computers, we must look beyond utopian and dystopian narratives and reject simplistic notions of technological or social determinism.WIRED examines Latin America’s history from the 1950s to the 2000s—a period marked not only by computer imports but also by remarkable creativity, innovation, and locally developed computer projects—to ask:How have people and digital computers shaped Latin American futures?Drawing on perspectives from the history of technology, Science and Technology Studies, and computational linguistics, among others, WIRED investigates diverse future-making ventures—such as educational initiatives, statistical agencies, economic investments, and programming laboratories—to analyze computing’s impact on the ground. For new insights into the “making” of futures, the research project integrates interviews with contemporary actors and explores rarely examined sources, including internal IT department documents and computer source codes. By focusing on computers as artifacts that “intermingle” times— past, present and future —WIRED bridges two fields: the history of computing and temporality studies.WIRED breaks new ground in the humanities and social sciences by:1)Reframing societal change through computers2)Combining the history of computing with temporality studies3)Highlighting Latin America’s frequently overlooked computing history
Beneficiaries (1)
| Organisation | Country | Role | EC contribution | SME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNIVERSITAT ZU KOLN | DE | coordinator | €2,000,000 |
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