[D66] Protocol, How Control Exists after Decentralization

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*Paperback*|*$21.95 Trade*|*£15.95*| ISBN: 9780262572330 | 286 pp. | 7 x 
9 in | 21 illus.| February 2006


    Essential Info

  * Index
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  * Sample Chapter
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FromLeonardo Book Series 
<http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/leonardo-book-series>


  Protocol

How Control Exists after Decentralization
ByAlexander R. Galloway 
<http://mitpress.mit.edu/authors/alexander-r-galloway>


    Overview

Is the Internet a vast arena of unrestricted communication and freely 
exchanged information or a regulated, highly structured virtual 
bureaucracy? In/Protocol/, Alexander Galloway argues that the founding 
principle of the Net is control, not freedom, and that the controlling 
power lies in the technical protocols that make network connections (and 
disconnections) possible. He does this by treating the computer as a 
textual medium that is based on a technological language, code. Code, he 
argues, can be subject to the same kind of cultural and literary 
analysis as any natural language; computer languages have their own 
syntax, grammar, communities, and cultures. Instead of relying on 
established theoretical approaches, Galloway finds a new way to write 
about digital media, drawing on his backgrounds in computer programming 
and critical theory. "Discipline-hopping is a necessity when it comes to 
complicated socio-technical topics like protocol," he writes in the preface.

Galloway begins by examining the types of protocols that exist, 
including TCP/IP, DNS, and HTML. He then looks at examples of resistance 
and subversion—hackers, viruses, cyberfeminism, Internet art—which he 
views as emblematic of the larger transformations now taking place 
within digital culture. Written for a nontechnical audience, Protocol 
serves as a necessary counterpoint to the wildly utopian visions of the 
Net that were so widespread in earlier days.


    About the Author

Alexander R. Galloway is Assistant Professor of Media Ecology at New 
York University.


    Reviews

"An engaging methodological hybrid of the Frankfurt School and/UNIX for 
Dummies/.... Galloway brings the uncool question of morality back into 
critical thinking.", Ed Halter, The Village Voice

"Galloway is one of the very few people who are equally well versed in 
poststructuralist cultural theory and computer programming.", Steven 
Shaviro, The Pinocchio Theory Weblog

"Protocol...is a book on computer science written by someone who's not a 
computer scientist, and that's a good thing.", Gary Singh, Metro


    Endorsements

"Expressing some startling new lines of thought with refreshingly 
straightforward clarity, Galloway reminds all of us why thinking about 
networks and their protocols is so relevant to our time. From FTP to 
fluxus or Deleuze to DNS, these are the connections that need to be made 
between the models competing to be our reality."
—*Douglas Rushkoff*, author of/Media Virus, Coercion/, and/Nothing Sacred/

"A very valuable, very original, and very significant contribution to 
the field of media studies and cultural theory."
—*Tilman Baumg*

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