{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age The Spirit of Networks","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781349379743","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","uuid":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age The Spirit of Networks","normalized_title":"mediaandnewcapitalisminthedigitalagethespiritofnetworks","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781349379743","isbns":["9781349379743","9780230106062"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":258,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Media%20and%20New%20Capitalism%20in%20the%20Digital%20Age%20The%20Spirit%20of%20Networks","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/search"},"page":{"printed_page":191,"pdf_page":192,"physical_index":192,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"b681134cf30e14f48d6e80ec650d7c1ffeec007e79fcb2963028748de4b0f891"},"chapter":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","content":"Another theme in the digital discourse that shifts freely between the three levels—nature, technology, and society—pertains to complexity. I have taken up the issue in depth in Chapter 3. What interests me here is again not the substantive argument but its technologistic epistemological underpinnings. Recall Kelly’s observation regarding the emergence of dumb chips and their interconnection into a rational smart network. Kelly affirms this by a reference to nature. Since this network model can be found in both nature and in technology, the analogies are interchangeable. In the space of a few sentences Kelly shifts back and forth between the two:\n\nA personal computer is like a single brain neuron . . . When linked by the telecosm into a neural network, these dumb PC nodes create that fabulous intelligence called the World Wide Web . . . dumb cells in our body work together in a swarm to produce an incredibly smart immune system, a system so sophisticated we still do not fully comprehend it . . . Dumb parts, properly connected into a swarm, yield smart results (Kelly 1998, 13) . . . The surest way to smartness is through massive dumbness (Kelly 1998, 14) . . . Everyday we see evidence of biological growth in technological systems. This is one of the marks of the network economy: that biology has taken root in technology. And this is one of the reasons why networks change everything. (Kelly 1998, 32)\n\nIt is obvious that the use of the language of nature and biology to explain technology and society is not simply metaphorical but points to a conflation of these worlds in reality. In this case, the social (economy) and the technological (which underlies the networking of the economy) are understood to be overtaken by nature. The crux of this depoliticizing narrative comes from the anchoring of the social in the technological, which in turn is anchored in the natural.\n\nThe formidable, socially transformative power of network technology— more than previous technological paradigms—rests, according to the digital discourse, not only on technology being more natural but also on culture being more technological. Kelly makes a distinction between previous technologies and current network technology in terms of their dominance in society. Up until the midtwentieth century, says Kelly, technology was almost entirely separated from society, or, rather, society was autonomous from technology; technologies merely “enhanced the prevailing culture” (32). Technologies could therefore be ignored, since they occupied the periphery of society; they “did not penetrate the areas of our lives we have always really cared about: our network of friendship, writing, painting, cultural arts, relationships, self-identity, civil organizations, the nature of work, the acquisition of wealth, and power” (32–33). But with the advent of the digital revolution, “technology completely overwhelmed these social areas” (33). As Kelly succinctly puts it, “Technology has become our culture, our culture technology” (33).\n\nNetwork Cosmology and the Exhaustion of Criti<sub>q</sub>ue\n\n191","previous_page":190,"next_page":192}