This week’s reading mainly discuss the issues related to the internet age —— As the algorithmic age comes, we are facing not only development, chances but also ’troubles’.
Just like any other rules in our world :
Everything is binary —— Everything has not only a good side but also definitely a bad side accompany as well.
The interview with Benjamin Bratton by Methaven is really interesting. It talks about how a planetary-scale computation has done to our geopolitical realities and based on research and study in this area Benjamin Bratton outlines a new theory for the age of global computation and algorithmic governance—— 《The Stack》(MIT Press, 2016. 503 pages).
When reading this article I also get inspired by the concept of Cloud —— A new age of technology which would eventually bring our world a subversively revolution.
Actually the term ‘Cloud’ contains much more beyond our imagination and knowledge. I went to read the article <Captives of the cloud:云的俘虏> mentioned in Benjamin Bratton’s interview. The article talks about the development of the Cloud and how it related to the serious social issues we are facing nowadays —— about the privacy， the misuse of authority by governments and the political collapsing force of the Cloud， also the huge opportunities in this industry. This article really impressed me since it provides me a new perspective of forecasting the future and how to perceive the life and the world’s situation right in this moment. Just like what we felt about the internet before 1990 —— We are underestimating the power of Cloud.
“I don’t think people have really understood how big this opportunity really is. It starts with the premise that the data services and architecture should be on servers. We call it cloud computing—they should be in a “cloud” somewhere. And that if you have the right kind of browser or the right kind of access, it doesn’t matter whether you have a PC or a Mac or a mobile phone or a BlackBerry or what have you—or new devices still to be developed—you can get access to the cloud. There are a number of companies that have benefited from that. Obviously, Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon come to mind. The computation and the data and so forth are in the servers.”
In China the government forbidden us to use Facebook or Google. In some ways it might work since it prevent some people knowing the things that governement don’t want us to know; But on the other hand ,we are in the Cloud age——You really can’t keep any secrets in a Cloud age.
But anyway, despite a lot of disadvantages and advantages the algorithm age is bring to us , I think of the reading we read last week:
<Living in the Back Loop > by Stephanie Wakefield ——“Taking up the challenge of the back loop is fundamentally a wager of the present, and it will only be met through a combination of adaption, reinvigoration, and a radical shedding of obsolete technical, social, and mental systems. “
Instead of turning a blind eye to the new changes or try to defend it (prevent it like what we did in China) will not really going to work in the end, we should make a better understanding of what we are facing now and more focus on how we can take the best use to the opening possibilities stored in this situation, in this case, it’s the Cloud age and algorithmic democracy.
