The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder

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tion. Nondistinction effaces distinctions, whereas indistinction proliferates
them. Indistinction is the ability to autogenerate distinctions
recursively.
Axiom 1. Networks have, as their central problematic, the fact that
they prioritize nodes at the same time as they exist through the precession
of edges. Networks are less mystical “first causes,” and more
the production of topological conditions and possibilities.
The User and the Programmer
Freedom of expression is no longer relevant; freedom of use has taken
its place. Consider two categories: the computer user and the computer
programmer. One designates the mass of computer society, the
other a clan of technical specialists. Or not? The user and the programmer
are also two rubrics for understanding one’s relationship to
art. (“There are two musics,” wrote Roland Barthes, “the music one
listens to, [and] the music one plays.”) 49 “User” is a modern synonym
for “consumer.” It designates all those who participate in the algorithmic
unfoldings of code. On the other hand, “programmer” is a
modern synonym for “producer.” It designates all those who participate
both in the authoring of code and in its process of unfolding.
Users are executed. But programmers execute themselves. Thus “user”
is a term for any passive or “directed” experience with technology,
while “programmer” means any active or “undirected” experience with
technology. Taken in this sense, anyone can be a programmer if he or
she so chooses. If a person installs a game console modchip, he is programming
his console. If she grows her own food, she is programming
her biological intake.
The unfortunate fallout of this is that most legal prohibitions are
today migrating away from prohibitions on being (the user model)
toward prohibitions on doing (programmer). Today there are more and
more threats to programming in everyday life: digital rights management
agreements prohibit specific uses of one’s purchased property;
sampling has become a criminal act. Hence future politics will turn
on freedoms of use, not on the antiquated and gutted freedom of
expression.