Last, but not least, the spirit of networks is the spirit of network technology itself, the bedrock on which the network civilization is founded. Network technology is natural, a return to the essential characteristics and the underlying infrastructure—the “operating system”—of the cosmos: information, communication, networks, spontaneous order, adaptability, smart mobs, and so forth. The spirit of networks, hence, is an articulation of this fundamental, natural truth; indeed, it is the gospel of the transcendental powers of network technology. Network technology should not be seen simply as a human creation; instead it is essentially an asocial phenomenon, an unfolding of a teleology of increased information and communication since the dawn of creation.
What Is the Sociopolitical Meaning of the Spirit of Networks?
Technology discourse, as a key social and political construct, is not a new phenomenon; it has its roots at the dawn of modernity and specifically with the rationalization of science and technology and the emergence of capitalism and the modern state. The spirit of networks is but the latest in this lineage. The purpose of this book has been not only to register anew the old themes prevalent in the discourse on technology—utopianism, technological determinism, instrumentalization, and so forth—but also to explore its contemporary particulars.
In more theoretical terms, this book has been concerned with both a revival and an updating of Habermas’s critique of “technological consciousness” and his framework of “technology as ideology.” It employed Habermas’s framework as a theoretical model in order to explore the legitimation function of technology discourse, specifically in the context of the prevailing political culture and the structural constellation of state and market. As such, this framework served as a theoretical entry point into the discourse on technology in the contemporary post-Fordist era. In that sense, the revival of Habermas’s critical lens and its application to the changing circumstances of the contemporary era has also led to its updating. The generational transformations of the political, economic, and technological pillars of Western capitalist society that have taken place since Habermas laid out his theoretical formulation beg for such updating. This book was concerned with elucidating how technology discourse works under a particular social constellation, highlighting its contemporary hues.
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Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age