Theophania Argyris
Theophania Argyris | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Planning and Development of Gylias | |
| In office 1 February 1962 – 5 March 1976 | |
| Prime Minister | Darnan Cyras |
| In office 30 May 1986 – 1 February 1990 | |
| Prime Minister | Filomena Pinheiro |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 10 October 1930 Xakalen, Alscia |
| Died | 31 May 2018 (aged 87) Mişeyáke, Mişeyáke, Gylias |
| Political party | Socialist Party |
| Occupation |
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Theophania Argyris (Hellene reformed: Θεοφάɴια Αʀγύʀις; Gylic transcription: Þeofania Argyris; 10 October 1930 – 31 May 2018) was a Gylian computer scientist and researcher. She was Gylias' planning minister in the Darnan Cyras government and Filomena Pinheiro government. She is best known for her role in the creation of the Hermes Programme.
Theophania was a self-taught computer scientist and protégé of Aliska Géza. She began working at the Ministry of Planning and development, with a focus on improving decentralised planning, before becoming planning minister in 1962.
She proposed using cybernetics to strengthen planning and coordination, and began to create the Hermes Programme in 1962. Its implementation in the Gylian economy was highly successful, becoming a fundamental tool of planning, and was subsequently adopted by other Common Sphere states.
She retired from government in 1976 and pursued a career in academia. She returned to her old ministry in the Filomena Pinheiro government. In her second tenure, she handled successful upgrades and improvements of the Hermes Programme. She declined an offer to remain in the Mathilde Vieira government. She returned to academia before her retirement in 1994 and later death in 2018.
Early life
Theophania Argyris was born on 10 October 1930 in Xakalen, Alscia. She was of primarily Hellene descent, and spoke Hellene as her native language.
She lost the opportunity to start formal education when Alscia voted to join the Free Territories. She was instead educated in volunteer classes. She used scientific magazines and books as reading aids, sparking her interest in technology.
Her family moved through the Free Territories several times, and settled in Dáuzas in 1954. Theophania continued her education by reading scientific books in the local library, and trained to be an electrical engineer. Her reading on biology made her fascinated by systems that could function like central nervous systems.
She began working with computers, and tried to build her own out of discarded electrical parts. The attempt was unsuccessful but helped her learn more about them. She later commented that her informal education and autodidacticism were important to her cabinet career, as her ignorance of the "rules" of cybernetics allowed her to come up with original approaches.
Early career
Theophania moved to Mişeyáke after the Liberation War, and worked as an electrical engineer. She met Aliska Géza through a home call, and the two became friends. Aliska was impressed by Theophania's cheerful nature and imaginative ideals, and recommended her hiring by the Executive Commission for Planning and Development.
Theophania researched the challenges facing the Gylian economy. She concluded the main obstacles to planning were communication and insufficient information. As a solution, she proposed the creation of a nationwide information network to gather data and make it publicly available to everyone. The system would allow for grassroots coordination among cooperatives and help federal and municipal governments calibrate subsidies and policies to ensure equal development.
Invited by Aliska, she attended a meeting of the Darnan Cyras government in late 1961 to present her proposal. Despite some concern about its ambition and whether Gylias had the necessary level of technology, it was approved by the cabinet.
Minister of Planning and Development (1962–1976)
Theophania joined the cabinet after the 1962 federal election, replacing Aliska Géza as planning minister. She lacked strong political convictions, but joined the Socialist Party beforehand, mainly to keep the cabinet balanced.
She and her team of engineers began the Hermes Programme in 1962. 500 telex machines donated by Kirisaki were installed in various enterprises and connected to a custom-built mainframe computer in Mişeyáke. The enterprises were instructed to send daily reports of their economic indicators. The computer processed the information using Theophania's statistical modelling software, turning it into easily-understood variables.
The implementation schedule was very aggressive: the Hermes Programme was rolled out across Gylias while simultaneously being tested and developed. Theophania's work on the project caused concern from cabinet colleagues about her health.
All Hermes Programme data was published in the Official Gazette and broadcast through the GNBS, achieving universal media coverage. Although initially cumbersome to use, the project proved successful. It was expanded to cover all Gylian economic activities, and full implementation was largely achieved by 1966. Hermes' adoption stimulated the growth of Gylias' computer industry.
The success of the Hermes Programme attracted notice. It was shared with the other members of the Common Sphere, who also adopted it in various degrees. Although other members may not have implemented it as comprehensively as Gylias, its CS-wide use significantly benefited mutual trade and economic development.
Unrealised projects
Theophania devised several ambitious ideas to develop the Hermes Programme, which initially went unrealised.
One project was GECOS (Gylian Economic Simulator), which would model the Gylian economy and create simulations of future economic performance. The modelling component was implemented with some success, but the simulation part proved troublesome.
Although Theophania intended it solely for contingency planning, cabinet colleagues expressed concern it would be misused to undermine workers' self-management and impose central planning. She abandoned the project in 1972, concluding that economic forecasting was "so dangerously useless it makes one appreciate the harmless charms of horoscopes."
Far more important to her was Cybervote, intended to aid communal assemblies by making it possible to vote on planning decisions directly through Hermes. The project was tested as a pilot experiment in several Gylian cities in 1970–1974. Participants expressed frustration that they could only vote "yes" or "no" to proposals, and were unable to submit alternatives directly.
When the experiment ended, the ministry's final report concluded that it was unfeasible without massive growth in processing power and telecommunications networks. In retrospect, the project is considered ahead of its time: it was beyond the capacity of contemporary computer technology, but became feasible after the microcomputer revolution and emergence of the Internet.
Public image
Theophania was an enthusiastic and tireless champion of the Hermes Programme. She wrote articles in the press and scientific journals, made herself available for interviews, and appeared in public information films produced by the Gylian National Film Institute to promote and explain the program to the public.
Her youthful enthusiasm and talent as a communicator endeared her to the public, who perceived her as an "endearingly spacey cybernetician". It was this reputation that disarmed critics of the Hermes Programme and helped secure its mass acceptance.
Theophania stirred protective feelings among her cabinet colleagues; Akane Tsunemori notes in her diary she was affectionately treated as "the cabinet's little sister". She was customarily seated next to health minister Régine Walras at cabinet meetings, who made sure she drank enough water. She was looked after by a few regular attendants of cabinet meetings — including Aliska, Marguerite Tailler, and Eva Gardiner —, and would arrive early so her usually messy appearance could be groomed before cabinet meetings would start.
She was the subject of several portraits by notable photographers such as Annemarie Beaulieu and Vivian Meyer, who focused on capturing her innocent demeanour and plucky enthusiasm.
Academia
Following the 1976 federal election, Theophania was opposed to the Progressive Alliance going into coalition with the Revolutionary Rally, and refused to serve in the Aén Ďanez government.
Having left the cabinet, she took a job teaching computer science at the University of Mişeyáke. Having already written Designing Freedom in 1972, she wrote and published several more books detailing her philosophy: Cybernetics and Management (1977), Intelligent Organisation (1979), and Cybernetic Socialism (1982).
Theophania's departure was an aggravating factor in the wretched decade: maintaining her idiosyncratic and complex code became a struggle for Hermes staff, while her successors at the ministry lacked her dedication or skill. Hermes' deterioration was one of the most visible symbols of the crisis in public services of the wretched decade.
Minister of Planning and Development (1986–1990)
The Aén Ďanez government was ousted following a near-outbreak of war with Ossoria in 1986. It was succeeded by Filomena Pinheiro's national unity cabinet, which included Theophania as planning minister. Theophania was initially reluctant to return, but was convinced by Filomena's appeal to her sense of duty.
A decade in academia had changed Theophania's working habits. She recalled, "When I first looked at the Hermes code again, I couldn't tell if it'd gotten that bad in ten years, or I'd made a total pig's ear out of it to begin with."
Theophania simplified the Hermes code, taking advantage of advances in computer software and accepting technical assistance from the CS, particularly Cacerta and Kirisaki. It took nearly two years to restore the code and make it straightforward, giving Hermes a better foundation for future upgrades.
Although Mathilde Vieira offered to retain Theophania in her cabinet, Theophania refused. Having completed the restoration of the Hermes Programme, she believed it was time for "fresh blood" at the ministry.
Her successor would go on to implement substantial upgrades, taking advantage of the spread of the Internet in Gylias and advances in computing. She took great pride in seeing the Cybervote system finally implemented in the 1990s.
Retirement and death
Theophania briefly returned to academia in the early 1990s. She prepared updated editions of her books, and wrote two more, Systems of Democracy (1992) and Towards a Democracy of the Future (1997), which deal extensively with how to harness the emancipatory, participatory potential of the internet.
She retired in 1994, and lived quietly with her family, dividing her time between Xakalen and Mişeyáke. She continued to write articles sporadically, and was interviewed for Rasa Ḑeşéy's documentaries Nation Building (1999) and Cyber-Revolution (2015).
She died in her sleep on 31 May 2018 in Mişeyáke.
Legacy
Theophania is recognised as a pioneer of the computer industry in Gylias, and was a significant figure in the Golden Revolution, due to the Hermes Programme's importance to the Gylian economy and later Common Sphere policymaking.
Outside of Gylias, Theophania is considered a distinguished contributor to the field of techno-progressivism, and her work has been cited as an inspiration for models of democratic planning by socialists, communists, anarchists, and other anti-capitalists.
Quenminese science and technology minister Lạm Thị Phương Nguyệt commented on Theophania's legacy in 2009:
"With her penchant of the syntax and the commands that the computer takes into play, and the wonders and uses of electricity of technology, she fulfilled her desire to better the economy of her country. To be honest, I respect her tenacity to use her skills for the good, seeing at how clever and pragmatic she can be holding that position in the government. That being said, whenever there are men or women that desire to hold government positions relative to their interests, I suggest that they take a look at how Theo has accomplished such great things in her time as Minister."
Private life
Theophania married Danielle Danau, a mathematician, in 1965. They had three adopted children, and several pets. She joked that "Danielle made me more French", but that "I remain, thank Athena, Hellene first of all."
She is a practitioner of traditional Hellene religion primarily, as well as Concordianism and Buddhism.
Although she grew up in a community marked by resistance to Xevden-era missionaries seeking to convert Hellenes, she kept her first name "Theophania" ("appearance of a deity") rather than pluralising it "Theoiphania" ("appearance of deities"). She commented, "I won't allow monotheists to steal my culture or heritage for themselves."
Bibliography
- Designing Freedom (1972)
- Cybernetics and Management (1977)
- Intelligent Organisation (1979)
- Cybernetic Socialism (1982)
- Systems of Democracy (1992)
- Towards a Democracy of the Future (1997)