The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder

154 Coda
to be sure. Furthermore, networks often display asymmetrical power
relationships (as in the “directed” graph). But if no one controls the
network in an instrumental sense, if there is indeed a defacement of
enmity, then how do we account for and “live against” such differences
and asymmetries?
Our suggestion may at first seem perplexing. We suggest that the discussions
over the multitude, netwars, and networks are really discussions
about the unhuman within the human.
By using the word “unhuman,” we do not mean that which is against
the human or is antihuman. Nor do we mean the use of cybernetic
technology to evolve beyond the human. This is not a nihilism (anti -
humanism) or a technophilia (posthumanism). We do not deny the
crucial role that human action and decision play, even at the most
micropolitical, localized level. But we do wonder if the thinking about
these so - called emerging forms really goes far enough in comprehending
them.
Difficult, even frustrating, questions appear at this point. If no single
human entity controls the network in any total way, then can we assume
that a network is not controlled by humans in any total way? If humans
are only a part of a network, then how can we assume that the ultimate
aim of the network is a set of human - centered goals?
Consider the examples of computer viruses or Internet worms, of
emerging infectious diseases, of marketing strategies employing viral
marketing or adware, of the unforeseen interpersonal connections in
any social network, of the connections between patterns of immigration
and labor in the United States, of the scaling up of surveillance
in U.S. Homeland Security and the Patriot Act, of the geopolitics of
the Kyoto Treaty and climate change. At the macro and micro levels,
it is not difficult to note at least some element in every network
that frustrates total control—or even total knowledge.
In fact, it is the very idea of “the total” that is both promised and yet
continually deferred in the “unhumanity” of networks, netwars, and even
the multitude.