Cubans live in acute technological scarcity and political captivity yet thrive off technological improvisation, the informal market and a burgeoning Sneakernet that makes up for the lack of internet. The reaction to the information on this Sneakernet has recently brought Cubans a newfound sense of the possibility in political awareness and engagement. To put it in historical context, Sneakernets in Russia and Iran were vital in creating alternate dialogues and agendas.

Many thought that the recent succession in Cuban leadership would be an opportunity to accelerate Cuba's liberalization and integration into the global economy. Instead Cuba has shown that it is steadfast in proceeding with an unconventional developmental pattern that has to this point witnessed the emergence of technological revelations spanning community-based sustainable agriculture, to leadership in hardware and software development for the developing world.

This lecture shares REGIONAL's recent in-field Cuban research that spans the socio-technological, the political, and the top-secret. It will reveal how their research led to the design of a simple and affordable digital device that would potentially accelerate Cuban social change. And it discusses how an understanding of Cuba's development in a technologically walled garden offers us the chance to consider this closed-system metaphor for how the world is increasingly accepting itself to be.