A Prehistory of the Cloud (The MIT Press)
by Tung-Hui Hu
83 Members (4.40)
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Description
We may imagine the digital cloud as placeless, mute, ethereal, and unmediated. Yet the reality of the cloud is embodied in thousands of massive data centers, any one of which can use as much electricity as a midsized town. Even all these data centers are only one small part of the cloud. Behind that cloud-shaped icon on our screens is a whole universe of technologies and cultural norms, all working to keep us from noticing their existence. In this book, Tung-Hui Hu examines the gap between show more the real and the virtual in our understanding of the cloud. Hu shows that the cloud grew out of such older networks as railroad tracks, sewer lines, and television circuits. He describes key moments in the prehistory of the cloud, from the game "Spacewar" as exemplar of time-sharing computers to Cold War bunkers that were later reused as data centers. Countering the popular perception of a new "cloudlike" political power that is dispersed and immaterial, Hu argues that the cloud grafts digital technologies onto older ways of exerting power over a population. show lessTags
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Books in the Bibliography of Digital Lethargy by Tung-Hui Hu
151 works; 3 members
Author Information
5+ Works 147 Members
Tung-Hui Hu, a former network engineer is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Michigan and the recipient of a 2015 NEA literature fellowship.
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2015-08-21
- First words
- Like the inaudible hum of the electrical grid at 60 hertz, the cloud is silent, in the background, and almost unnoticeable.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I offer this book to you so that we might return the cloud to the scarcest space of all: the space of public life.
- Blurbers
- Lovink, Geert; Parks, Lisa; Terranova, Tiziana
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Technology, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, History
- DDC/MDS
- 004.6 — Computer science, information & general works Computer science, knowledge & systems Computer science Interfacing and communications (including networking)
- LCC
- TK5105.5 .H79 — Technology Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear Telecommunication
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 83
- Popularity
- 382,011
- Rating
- (4.40)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 2
