Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization
by Alexander R. Galloway
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Description
How Control Exists after DecentralizationIs the Internet a vast arena of unrestricted communication and freely exchanged information or a regulated, highly structured virtual bureaucracy? In Protocol, Alexander Galloway argues that the founding principle of the Net is control, not freedom, and that the controlling power lies in the technical protocols that make network connections (and disconnections) possible. He does this by treating the computer as a textual medium that is based on a show more technological language, code. Code, he argues, can be subject to the same kind of cultural and literary analysis as any natural language; computer languages have their own syntax, grammar, communities, and cultures. Instead of relying on established theoretical approaches, Galloway finds a new way to write about digital media, drawing on his backgrounds in computer programming and critical theory. "Discipline-hopping is a necessity when it comes to complicated socio-technical topics like protocol," he writes in the preface.Galloway begins by examining the types of protocols that exist, including TCP/IP, DNS, and HTML. He then looks at examples of resistance and subversion--hackers, viruses, cyberfeminism, Internet art--which he views as emblematic of the larger transformations now taking place within digital culture. Written for a nontechnical audience, Protocol serves as a necessary counterpoint to the wildly utopian visions of the Net that were so widespread in earlier days. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Overall rather a disappointment. Some nice ideas, internet history and curiosities but poorly organised and under edited. The arguments/narrative set up in the early chapters are not really carried through convincingly.
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Books in the Bibliography of Digital Lethargy by Tung-Hui Hu
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Author Information
8 Works 567 Members
Alexander R. Galloway is professor of media, culture, and communication at New York University. His many books include The Interface Effect and The Exploit: A Theory of Networks (Minnesota, 2007).
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization
- Original publication date
- 2004
- Dedication
- For Fredric Jameson and Michael Hardt, my teachers
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)My goal here in this book has been not to come down cleanly and say that protocol is either good or bad—because clearly it is both, in varying degrees and contexts—but rather to chart some of protocol's distinctive characteristics so that any concerned person can better decide how to evaluate and critique a given protocological technology in a specific historical context.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Technology, General Nonfiction, Business, Philosophy
- DDC/MDS
- 005.8 — Computer science, information & general works Computer science, knowledge & systems Artificial Intelligence/Virtual Reality Computer Security
- LCC
- TK5105.59 .G35 — Technology Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear Telecommunication
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 172
- Popularity
- 189,578
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.44)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 2
