A Prehistory of the Cloud

A Prehistory of the Cloud
Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
Total Pages : 241
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780262529969
ISBN-13 : 0262529963
Rating : 4/5 (963 Downloads)

Book Synopsis A Prehistory of the Cloud by : Tung-Hui Hu

Download or read book A Prehistory of the Cloud written by Tung-Hui Hu and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-09-02 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The militarized legacy of the digital cloud: how the cloud grew out of older network technologies and politics. We may imagine the digital cloud as placeless, mute, ethereal, and unmediated. Yet the reality of the cloud is embodied in thousands of massive data centers, any one of which can use as much electricity as a midsized town. Even all these data centers are only one small part of the cloud. Behind that cloud-shaped icon on our screens is a whole universe of technologies and cultural norms, all working to keep us from noticing their existence. In this book, Tung-Hui Hu examines the gap between the real and the virtual in our understanding of the cloud. Hu shows that the cloud grew out of such older networks as railroad tracks, sewer lines, and television circuits. He describes key moments in the prehistory of the cloud, from the game “Spacewar” as exemplar of time-sharing computers to Cold War bunkers that were later reused as data centers. Countering the popular perception of a new “cloudlike” political power that is dispersed and immaterial, Hu argues that the cloud grafts digital technologies onto older ways of exerting power over a population. But because we invest the cloud with cultural fantasies about security and participation, we fail to recognize its militarized origins and ideology. Moving between the materiality of the technology itself and its cultural rhetoric, Hu's account offers a set of new tools for rethinking the contemporary digital environment.


A Prehistory of the Cloud Related Books

A Prehistory of the Cloud
Language: en
Pages: 241
Authors: Tung-Hui Hu
Categories: Computers
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-09-02 - Publisher: MIT Press

GET EBOOK

The militarized legacy of the digital cloud: how the cloud grew out of older network technologies and politics. We may imagine the digital cloud as placeless, m
The Read Aloud Cloud
Language: en
Pages: 176
Authors: Forrest Brazeal
Categories: Computers
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-08-14 - Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

GET EBOOK

What is “the cloud”? Is it here or there? Should it be allowed? Should I even care? Have you ever imagined the internet as a giant Rube Goldberg machine? Or
Digital Lethargy
Language: en
Pages: 288
Authors: Tung-Hui Hu
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-10-04 - Publisher: MIT Press

GET EBOOK

The exhaustion, disappointment, and listlessness experienced under digital capitalism, explored through works by contemporary artists, writers, and performers.
Greenhouses, Lighthouses
Language: en
Pages: 96
Authors: Tung-Hui Hu
Categories: Literary Collections
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-10-10 - Publisher: Copper Canyon Press

GET EBOOK

"Perplexity and wonder are integral parts of Tung-Hui Hu's poetry, which is as elegant as it is surprising."—Rain Taxi "This fresh and unexpected poet extends
Weather
Language: en
Pages: 456
Authors: Andrew Revkin
Categories: Nature
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-05-20 - Publisher: Union Square + ORM

GET EBOOK

From an award–winning journalist, a “beautifully illustrated” book describing “the most pivotal moments . . . in the climate’s rich . . . 4.5 billion-