MCOM72 Week 9 Flashcards
Internet:
vast network of fiber-optic lines, wireless
connections, and satellite systems that links digital devices
to enormous data centers around the world
ARPAnet:
created by U.S. Department of Defense to
enable researchers to pool computing power (remember
WarGames movie!)
Protocols
allowed supercomputers to join the
network and communicate
Development of microprocessors and fiber-optic cables
aid the foundation for commercialization of the Internet
Interesting paradox:
he internet was not a commercial,
for profit, enterprise at its origins; different from other
media (mass circulation newspapers, radio, television,
cinema)
Leap on the diffusion of micro-electronics
by Intel
engineer, Ted Hoff (Silicon Valley, 1971)
Micro-processors
were critical for Altair, the first
computer box by Ed Roberts (Albuquerque, 1975) and
Apple I and Apple II, by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
PC software
also emerged in the mid-1970s, by Bill
Gates and Paul Allen, adapting Basic language (and
later Windows)
Progress in integrated circuit technologies
made possible the digital switch
in the 70s
Major advances in opto-electronics
(fiber optics and laser transmission)
The creation of the Internet: In September 1969 ARPANET (a military
project),
went online at UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, Stanford and University of
Utah
Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, computer scientists doing research at ARPA
designed the basic architecture of the Internet in 1973
However, the Internet was a Defense Department Program
and most of
previous technologies came from State funded programs inspired by Cold
War strategies and goals
Counter-culture practices and ideas
(The Hackers) pushed for a horizontal networking, but functional for
military aims!
Moreover, the creation of the World Wide Web structure is European
turning an American invention into a global phenomenon
Castells affirms a technology-induced transformation,
specially based in
California
But the role of the State and public institutions was critical
for those
technologies to emerge and to expand
In all countries was a process triggered by the State
(Japan, Europe, China),
even in the US
“Kranzberg’s First Law reads as follows: Technology
neither good nor bad, nor is it
neutral.” It is indeed a social force
A new age:
information, networking logic, pervasiveness, flexibility
But… technologies are not neutral;
they reflect the time, the economics, or
the cultural context in which they were born
The Santiago Boys case (Evgeny Morozov)
A use of cybernetics very different from the
Californian experience (decentralized,
capitalistic and individualistic)
* Cybersyn Project during Salvador Allende’s
presidency in Chile (1971-1973)
* Computers and the emerging internet for a
‘socialist society’
* Cutting-edge cybernetics management,
efficiency and decentralization, for a
democratic control of corporations
* Attacked from internal and external enemies
the project was killed after the 1973 coup
d’etat
* Santiago Boys replaced by Chicago Boys of
neoliberalism
Semantic Web:
allows computers to examine
web pages and databases and provide solutions
A case: The
Epoch Times
- An allegedly news site but
with doubts in ownership - Extremely far-right under a
discourse of ‘freedom’ - Huge increase in
subscriptions; aggressive
campaigns - Reinforced by polarizing
algorithms - Political and economic ties
