Networks A Logic of Elsewhere CHID 370/COM 302 Winter 2007
Where we’ve been Development of Computing during the Cold War Years Military Industrial Complex- Developments in Hardware Developments in Userinterface Developments in Networking
Cybernetics and counterculture Investigated some of the conceptual advances from Military/Industrial Complex Saw how they permeated and informed the counterculture during the 1960s and 1970s –Whole Earth Catalogue If the counterculture must use the tools of the MI complex is there an outside to “the system”?
Hyperreal If there is no outside, how can we tell what is real? Hyperreal as a stae where “values” can’t be determined Too much information Extension of the computer into our personal lives
This ain’t your father’s reality How a state of “real virtuality” permeates current life –Network-The genesis of new social “structures” –Identity-The possibility/challenge for new personas –Lives-New ideas about life and creation –Affect-What does it mean “to feel”
Virtually real Real virtuality significantly different than previous ways of thinking about reality. We can’t describe it by removing ourselves from it (Descartes) We must describe it imminently (from the inside) The rest of the class to build these tools
Manuel Castells Geographer and Social Theorist Informational City (1989) –Puts forward the theory of the super city The Information Age: Economy, Society, Culture ( , rev. 2000) –Map out the dynamics of the Information Age
Points to build on Space of Flows –Information develops because of the need to regulate flows Timeless Time –Specific sense of timelessness and spacelessness associated with this space
Implications Development and Networks –Need an industrial infrastructure Information dependent upon industry (but wants to hide it (outsourcing) –Apparent exception cell phones –Concentration of resources within urban areas –Urban areas looking more and more “alike” Local culture often there for packaging
Non-scalar networks Developed by social theorists and graph theorists An emergent complex network containing many highly connected hubs Not a uniformly distributed network
How do scale free networks emerge? Nodes are added one at a time Probability of attachment proportional to attachee’s number of connections –Popular attachments get more popular
How do scale free networks emerge? Nodes are added one at a time Probability of attachment proportional to attachee’s number of connections –Popular attachments get more popular
How do scale free networks emerge? Nodes are added one at a time Probability of attachment proportional to attachee’s number of connections –Popular attachments get more popular
How do scale free networks emerge? Nodes are added one at a time Probability of attachment proportional to attachee’s number of connections –Popular attachments get more popular
How do scale free networks emerge? Nodes are added one at a time Probability of attachment proportional to attachee’s number of connections –Popular attachments get more popular
How do scale free networks emerge? Nodes are added one at a time Probability of attachment proportional to attachee’s number of connections –Popular attachments get more popular
How do scale free networks emerge? Nodes are added one at a time Probability of attachment proportional to attachee’s number of connections –Popular attachments get more popular
How do scale free networks emerge? Nodes are added one at a time Probability of attachment proportional to attachee’s number of connections –Popular attachments get more popular
Scale free networks Human social networks –Six degrees –Sexually transmitted diseases –Nomads and genetics Protein interactions WWW Airlines