The various concepts used to account for this new form of network architecture and network rationality in the digital discourse is very telling. “Distributed power” (Anderson 2002, Luman 2005, Leslie 1997), “smart mobs” (Rheingold 2003, Sterling 2005, Kelly 2005), “the wisdom of crowds” (Surowiecki 2004), “swarm intelligence” (Bonabeau, Dorigo, and Theraulaz 1999), “dumb power” (Kelly 1998), “spontaneous order” (Strogatz 2003, Regis 1994, Postrel 1998, Kelly 1993), and “hidden order” (Holland 1996) all play on a similar linguistic device: an oxymoron. These duos tie together the irrational (the fuzzy and undirected) with the rational (the instrumental, purposive, and focused). In all of them, a “bad” thing (which incidentally characterized Fordist society) is rendered “good” by the power of network technology and, more generally, by the architecture of the network. Power’s coerciveness and oppressiveness is curbed by being distributed in a way that flattens and diminishes the very poignancy of power; the threatening mob—a bundle of thoughtless individuals homogenized and manipulated by a “mass society”—becomes smart and thoughtful; and order, which we were led to believe requires centralization and control lest it devolves into entropy, is achieved spontaneously. This teasing use of oxymorons defies our intuitive and wellestablished notions of rationality.
With network technology, these idioms suggest, we are entering a new level of rationality that is superior to the old one both in process (which is rendered more democratic and collaborative) and in result (which becomes more instrumental and efficient). This type of superior rationality, as suggested by these duos, is inextricably tied to a new architecture of organization; rationality and network go hand in hand. These duos also do something else. They help imagine a notion of society comprised of individuals, and of social dynamics that are reducible to the unrestrained actions of free individuals. They suggest that the coordination of these individuals into a rational society comes about without any central, constructed, and overt mechanism but with one that is “hidden,” “distributed,” and “spontaneous.” I will get back to this theme at more length later in this chapter.
Network Market
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