To be 100% honest, I struggled with the Galloway reading. It was long and abstract, and I found it difficult to process and apply to my life and interests. However, what I did take away from it was Galloway’s thoughts about the rise and rise of technology, and how that may affect society in the future.
He discussed the idea of a ‘diagram’ (the distributed network), the ‘technology’ (a computer) and ‘management style’ (protocol) come together to define control. I think what he’s trying to theorise is that in the future, computers will have control. The idea of the Internet having control offers an interesting hypothesis for the future – governments will no longer be able to hold or possess control, as it has now become a thing that moves around.
This talk of computer’s taking control gives me eerie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ vibes. Computers having control? Creepy. However, I guess with the power of the Internet comes a shift in power for good, or at least for proactive demand for change. Think recently, in the last ten years, the amount of power Internet activism has held for provoking governments and inspiring people to demand change.
On a somewhat lighter note, this all reminds me of the movie ‘Her’, by one of my favourite directors Spike Jonze. The premise is basically a man falling in love with his operating system, like a 1000x more advanced version of Siri. It’s a really beautiful, moving film but also kind of frightening, providing a really bleak, pessimistic view on what the future will be like, and just how much we can be manipulated and controlled by technology.
