The network human does not produce as much as he or she brings together and catalyzes the creation of assemblages of disparate nodes in the network. Stewart Brand, for example, publisher of the Whole Earth catalogue and an iconic member of the digerati (see, for example, Turner 2006) is described as “a starter of things, an intellectual pies piper with a knack for bringing together people from a wide swath of disciplines” (Hafner 1997). These new types of people, able to transcend disciplinary, professional, and bureaucratic boundaries and bring together disparate nodes, are referred to in the digital discourse as “The Connectors” (Howe 2003): “Meet the hypernetworked nodes who secretly run the world . . . In a computer network, a node performs the crucial task of data routing, playing digital matchmaker to packets of information. In a social network, a node is the person whose PDA runneth over with people they met once on an airplane” (Howe 2003). The network structure creates and is dependent on a new type of social actor whose prime practice is to make connections: the network human.
Network Identity
The type of cyborg represented by Nagle—a nearly science-fictional character of flesh and bolts—is only a borderline case of a much more universal phenomenon shared by an increasing number of humans. To recall Haraway’s contention, we are all cyborgs, and we are increasingly so with the widespread dissemination of network technology. According to the digital discourse, in the digital era humans cannot be understood independent of network technology. Information technology is no longer a tool to be utilized but a component of our innermost realms; it also becomes a central axis of human identity. It is here, in the realm of identity, reflexivity, and self-understanding, that commensurability of humans and network technology is most dramatically revealed to be understood not only in instrumental and pragmatic terms but also in quasi-essentialist terms. Humans are understood in the digital discourse to be not simply like network technology but to be themselves networked entities.
Network Human
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