Slides from this talk are available here.

Infrastructure, Authority, and the Industrialization of the Internet

Smàri began his discussion by asking us what do we mean when we say digital transformation? What is the good life in infrastructural terms? How do we live? How do we die? How do we want to live? We encounter many different infrastructures in our daily lives. What are the different ways to guarantee our livelihoods?

Group exercise:
In 2 groups, 1 from the perspective of a “developed” country and the other from the perspective of a developing country, use the 6 Ways to Die model to map various infrastructures to the location access and connect them to the lethal condition which they help prevent. 

6 Ways to Die      Location
Too hot                   Individual
Too cold                 Household
Hunger                   Neighborhood
Thirst                     Town
Illness                     Region
Injury                     State
                              World

The interesting trend with this exercise is that in less developed countries, infrastructure tends to be more on the individual level while in the US all of the infrastructure is pushed out toward the world level (global markets, supply chains) which then bring it into the local markets.

The interesting trend with this exercise is that in less developed countries, infrastructure tends to be more on the individual level while in industrialized nations all of the infrastructure is pushed out toward the world level (global markets, supply chains) which then bring it into the local markets.

A completely different set of collapsed possibilities arise when you have a world based infrastructure but how does this relate to the internet? If we look at pre-industrialized societies, we had a decentralized manufacturing capacity and a limited distribution of goods which led to a highly meritocratic, reputation based society.

We also had informal intellectual property regime but after the Industrial Revolution we had an increasing centralization of production capacity which in turn led to urbanization of the workforce.

With better transportation and communication grids, globalization began to occur and reputation is no longer reliable as a form of control, leading to increased state regulation. As increased centralization makes it possible for the state to enforce intellectual property regime, the state now effectively regulates ideas.

The early internet was decentralized everybody was equal on the network. Social networks were very much connected to local communities with a high value placed on merit. A very informal intellectual property regime existed. The state wasn’t concerned about regulating the internet early on but during the dot com, large vendors began a massive “land grab” and ended up being the dominant force.

Since the dot com boom, a massive centralization has occurred along with a massive globalization of activities. This leads to increasing state regulation of the internet, with mechanisms being put in place (Digital Terrorism Act, Cybercrime Convention, Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive) in order to provide greater control of the internet with the excuse of protecting the workforce and ensuring a level of quality.

Smàri stated that the problem with technology is not technology but how people interact with technology. We should keep in mind that “faulty technology can render the environment uninhabitable.”

“I have come to the paradoxical conclusion that technology must be protected from man”
Valeri Legasov, Deputy Director, Atomic Power Institute (after the investigation of the Chernobyl disaster)

Tools for Conviviality
If we’re not mindful about how we approach the tools in our environment, they might start to control the way we live. We can learn from the internet about how we organize our societies. It has taught us to both democratize mass media as well as to democratize production (from a manufacturing point of view). An example of this is the Global Village Construction Set (video).

We have also learned to democratize knowledge (Wikipedia, social networks, semantic web, etc.) but why haven’t we democratized democracy yet? We’ve seen a major change from a peer-to-peer world to a centralized one on the internet and from a decentralized, distributed world in the pre-industrial era to centralized one in the post-industrial era. The internet is trying to teach us to govern ourselves in a much more effective way.

We have also learned to democratize knowledge (Wikipedia, social networks, semantic web, etc.) but why haven’t we democratized democracy yet? We’ve seen a major change from a peer-to-peer world to a centralized one on the internet and from a decentralized, distributed world in the pre-industrial era to centralized one in the post-industrial era. The internet is trying to teach us to govern ourselves in a much more effective way.

In conclusion, Smàri stated that we should consider the interactions between the internet and civil society and different infrastructures. We created the internet from a research or academic culture, but we have a capitalist system so it’s been monetized. What values should we advocate and protect to keep spaces for innovation, experimentation, openness? It’s too late to fight out marketization but we can fight to keep network neutrality.