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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/opinion/technology/what-would-an-egalitarian-internet-actually-look-like.html>
"MAREA is a reminder that the internet has a body. A body of glass, copper,
silicon and a thousand other things — things that have to be dug out of the
earth and hammered into useful shapes, with significant inputs of labor and
energy.
Bodies are material; they are also historical. Submarine cables like MAREA,
writes the scholar Nicole Starosielski, frequently follow “the contours of
earlier networks.” Installing underwater lines is expensive, and it’s safer to
follow the paths of prior telephone and telegraph networks — themselves shaped
by even older patterns of empire and capital. Cables typically shadow the sea
routes pioneered in previous centuries, routes that circulated cotton, silver,
spices, settlers and slaves.
The growth of networks was guided by a desire for power and profit. They were
not just conduits for conveying information, but mechanisms for forging
relationships of control. While the internet is more sophisticated than its
predecessors, it continues this tradition.
As a result, some are saying that the connectivity it enables is not only
making the world smaller but making it worse. They worry about fake news,
surveillance, the invasion of our privacy, the exploitation of app-based
workers, and the proliferation of right-wing propaganda on social media, to
name just a few."
Via Bill Daul.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
