(Hey! Did you know we have a Vintage Computing Collection?)

Grab Bag 2

It's not that you look, it's how you look at

which is to say, let's talk about how we turn 'facts' into 'history'

history => ἱστορία

From ῐ̔στορέω (hĭstoréō, “to inquire”) +‎ -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā), from ἵστωρ (hístōr, “one who knows, wise one”).

ῐ̔στορῐ́ᾱ • (hĭstorĭ́ā) f (genitive ῐ̔στορῐ́ᾱς); first declension

inquiry, examination, systematic observation, science

body of knowledge obtained by systematic inquiry

written account of such inquiries, narrative, history

'Do Your Own Research' is not the same as having actual training

The first is about half-assed searching & falling prey to confirmation bias

The second is always asking 'how am I wrong / what am I missing / triangulation from what is known

Doing History

The history of the net has many different aspects, how can you bring order to this?

This is what 'theory' is for. Theory is a framework for understanding the world & directing your attention.

Theory tells you which bits are important. Theory helps frame your questions.

But there are many different theories to order our observations.

Historical Theory is Everywhere

Questions From A Worker Who Reads

Click to read poem here

Bertolt Brecht

My Theoretical Perspective

ie, what body of ideas do I draw on when I try to make sense of the unfamiliar?

or, is there such a thing as a theory of digital archaeology?

τέχνη

'craft', 'art',

proto indo-european "Teks-" meaning "to weave," also "to fabricate"

also implies episteme, or a system of knowledge, of practical things

We need archaeology not just because of the things of this history we want to explore, but also because of the places of this history!

Archaeology is the science of human duration. See this paper on the long term effects of infrastructure

Space/Economy

Complicated vs Complex

A rocket ship versus the Queensway

difference between complicated & complex;
idea of emergence
particular network shapes enable emergence
feedback is a big part of this

Assemblage Theory

agencement, things come together

meaning depends on context
both internal, within
external, in time
external, in space
nothing is meaningful on its own

potter video

there are no captions on this video
Just watch how the clay responds to the potter's intuition
you can't divide the world into physical objects/properties and human agency;
it's the interaction between human and object that matters, the space in-between
This is sometimes called 'material engagement theory'

Perspectivism (not quite the right word, but it'll do for now)

the way we record information matters
we try to mirror 'natural breakages', but there are many ways to make the decisions
these categories emerge from our engagement with the material
like with the potter and the wheel; if we don't think the relationship with the clay matters, you don't even look to see it

So, if we pull that altogether...?

Well, here's what I think...

a network is present whenever there is a relationship between two entities along which information flows.
networks form a substrate for social life, and humans aren't the only things that can have a social life
networks leave physical traces

more complex phenomena can emerge from interactions in certain network shapes
networks also provide a formal mechanism through which computation can happen
computation is inherent in the shape of the network
the components of a networked history are not just the technical objects, but also the assemblage

material agencies extend cognition into our things
meaning is relational

To my mind, all of this implies the following questions we might ask as we inquire into the internet

what are the social/political/economic contexts of the people, places, things?
what are the assemblages that make this thing up?
how do those assemblages extend in time or space?

how do networks intersect (which is distinct from interconnect)?
what drives network evolution? who/what are key players?
how do we study such things?

ok, here's a question. Semaphore networks worked, and worked quickly. So why did the electrical telegraph win out?

For that, we need a framework that helps us identify the why of the story.

History is a verb, an inquiry; we inquire to understand why

There are things we need to do, when we are historying.

DON'T STRESS ABOUT THESE NEXT SLIDES

-But based on this

So this approach might lead us to ask of the digital computer:

What are some of the 'competences' required for it?
Supervening Social Necessities?
Suppression of Radical Potential?

Winston's approach is only one. But this kind of structured approach to your thought helps you identify what matters to your story, to your inquiry

Different Theories aka Frames aka Themes aka Lenses help us know what to pay attention to.

At the same time, they also change the story we tell to put the emphasis on different elements.

So let's look at Whig History vs Social History again

A Whig History

Whig history takes 'history' to be the inevitable triumph of 'progress', every era better than the one before, leading to the triumph of Anglo-American power ca 1911 . Tends to celebrate innovation but ignores who built the infrastructure and at what cost.

You Know You're Dealing With Whigs When:

Each invention builds logically on the last. Genius overcomes technical challenges.
Connectivity inexorably expands.
The endpoint (global digital network) was nearly inevitable once the principles were discovered.

The Inevitable March Toward Global Connection

1830s - 1840s: Morse & others pioneer the telegraph: a revolution in instant long-distance communications

1876 Graham Bell Invents The Telephone - even more elegant solution!

1930s-1950s Visionary Men Working In Bell Labs and Allied Spaces Discover Information Can Be Transmitted Electronically Enabling Computing!

1960s-1970s Visionary Men Imagine Networking Computers Together

1983 TCP/IP Triumphs Over Competing Protocols Because It Is Self Evidently The Best

1989 Berners Lee Invents The Web: An Elegant Overlay on Internetworking Computers!

1990s-2020 Global Transformation!

A Social History

Social history takes social relationships and how those are articulated (and what flows over them) as a starting point. It asks, 'in whose interest does this lie?'

Social history notices that technology is always serving someone's interest: whose?

Technology is embedded with power.
How 'progress', 'connectivity', and 'technology' are experienced - and what they mean - depend on where you sit vis-à-vis others.
The internet was not inevitable and could have been otherwise

Power And Inequality and Global Connectivity

1830s - 1840s: Telegraph serves capital accumulation and imperial coordination. Telegraph operators (later feminized labor) are poorly paid

1850s-1890s: Telegraph (later, telephone) cables coordinate colonial extraction and empire trade networks. Cable-laying kills workers; ecosystems disrupted; environmental degradation

1870s: Telephone access is class-bounded. Women become switchboard operators—feminized, monitored, underpaid labor (100,000+ by 1900s).

1930s-1950s Computing emerges from military-industrial complex. Early computers: massive facilities, massive energy, concentrated power. "Universal machine" mythology obscures military origins.

1960s-1970s Mainframe computers cost millions—only governments, military, corporations access them. Semiconductor industry extracts rare minerals from colonized regions; creates toxic waste.

1983 ARPANET is military-funded, serves only elite institutions (military labs, prestigious universities) begets TC/ICP. Predominantly white, male researchers. Global South excluded.

1989 Berners Lee Invents The Web: Web development emerges from CERN (elite institution). "Democratization" masks actual exclusion by class and geography.

1990s-2020 Dot-com boom concentrates wealth in tech entrepreneurs (nearly all white men). "Meritocracy" mythology masks exclusion in venture capital. E-waste dumping in Global South begins—workers, often children, disassemble for toxic materials. Rapid enshittification

An Environmental History of the Internet

allied/emergent from social history

foregrounds thinking through environmental impacts/implications

1830s-40s and the emergence of the telegraph: would focus on copper mining for the wires; would follow the copper back to the source(s); would look at mining expansion in colonized areas of the global south; it would map flows of material and labour

1850s-60 and the wiring of the world: would look at the materiality of the cables and constituent ingredients; would look at the social, political, and economic structures to enable transfer of these materials

1870s-1900s and the shift to telephony & wired power supplies: sources of electricity, building of hydropower, coal

1900s-1950s business machines become computers: heat, cooling, toxic chemicals to build the components: where from, processed by who, consumed where?

...and so on.

Now What do YOU Think?

take a few moments to jot down the parts that are maybe confusing
talk it out with your neighbours
does any of this resonate with any of your own observations as recorded in your memos?

What Theory (or theories) of History Have You Been Using for your Precis/Memo Combos?

Make a Timeline.

Seriously.

A Timeline is An Argument

put 'facts' along a timeline

what narrative do you see?

Why are you seeing that narrative?
Which narrative you get depends on what you ask and what you count as important
Ask yourself, what framework(s) have I been taught? What have I been trained to value?

So, same bullet points more or less in terms of 'facts', but the meaning and story is very different. Timeline is one way of visualizing this.

Ok, let's do the last two-hundred-years-ish

Whig: story of inevitable progress

Social: structural exploitation/labour

Archaeology (post-processual): what happens to humans when they interact with material culture

Internet History: Three Perspectives

Period	Whig Perspective	Social History Perspective	Post-Processual Archaeological
1830s-1840s	Telegraph • Revolutionary breakthrough • Instantaneous communication • Overcomes distance	• Capital accumulation • Operators exploited • Poorly paid labor	• Embodied skill (reading dots/dashes) • Material interface becomes body extension • Users create alternative practices
1850s-1870s	• Cables connect the world • Progress narrative	• Coordinate colonial extraction • Cable-laying deaths • Imperial networks	• Human + machinery assemblage • Cables as fragile traces • Skilled repair practices
1876	• Bell's elegant solution • Voice transmission • Progress accelerates	• Access is class-bounded • 100,000+ women operators • Surveilled, underpaid labor	• Embodied operator labor (hands, ears, eyes) • Operators hack & subvert protocols • Telephone becomes domestic ritual

Internet History: Three Perspectives

Period	Whig Perspective	Social History Perspective	Post-Processual Archaeological
1920s-1940s	• Computing becomes possible • Visionary scientists • Information era begins	• Military-industrial complex • Massive facilities & power • Mythology obscures origins	• Intense heat, physical labor • Women "computers" + punch cards • Tacit knowledge through hands-on work
1950s-1960s	• Computing miniaturization • Trajectory becomes clear • Progress inevitable	• Only governments/military access • Rare mineral extraction • Toxic manufacturing waste	• Intricate, miniaturized artifacts • Embodied craft (minute assembly) • Users discover hacks & workarounds
1960s-1970s	• Visionary scientists imagine • Universal networking • Birth of internet idea	• Military-funded project • Only elite institutions • Global South excluded	• Material nodes & cables • Emergent uses (email, bulletin boards) • Hackers explore unintended possibilities
1983	• TCP/IP becomes standard • Elegant technical solution • Makes internet possible	• Power over standards concentrated • Infrastructure hidden • Underpaid workers globally	• Invisible protocol • Material interfaces (keyboards, screens) • Failures reveal hidden infrastructure
1989	• Web invented • Democratizes information • Unleashes human potential	• Emerges from elite CERN • "Democratization" is myth • Exclusion by class/geography	• New embodied interface (mouse, graphing) • Material slowness (dial-up) • Users create homepages, hack HTML
1990s	• Commercial explosion • Entrepreneurs recognize potential • Access expands dramatically	• Wealth concentrated (white men) • "Meritocracy" is ideology • E-waste dumping begins	• Computer as familiar home object • Embodied strain (posture, eyes, hands) • Users modify machines; hackers overclock

Internet History: Three Perspectives

Period	Whig Perspective	Social History Perspective	Post-Processual Archaeological
1990s-2000s	• Broadband revolutionizes • Information barriers collapse • Global reach expands	• Content moderators poorly paid • Foxconn exploitation • Invisible labor scaffolding	• Continuous connection changes practice • Mobile phones as intimate objects • Repair cultures emerge
2000s-2010s	• Mobile internet spreads • Social media connects billions • Smartphones enable everyone	• "Free" platforms extract data • Users = unpaid laborers • Algorithmic bias emerges	• Ubiquitous intimate objects • Embodied gesture (swiping) • Dropped phones = material records
2010s-2020s	• Cloud computing emerges • AI accelerates • Exponential capability growth	• Platform monopolies consolidate • Control economic life • Surveillance normalized	• Data centers as massive infrastructure • E-waste crisis (landfills) • Repair movements resist
Across All Periods	Logic: Innovation → Progress Celebrates: Genius, breakthroughs, capability Assumes: Inevitable improvement	Logic: Technology = power tool Reveals: Labor, extraction, control Questions: Who profits? Who pays?	Logic: Material shapes consciousness Highlights: Embodied practice, creative resistance, artifacts Recovers: Human agency & material traces

Next Week

We will practice moving from your precis/memo combo notes to a kind of outline

How you structure that outline depends on the kind of frame / lens/ historical theory you adopt

Which one you adopt directly relates to the question you ask and the things you think important to explore

Once you have an outline, you can copy in relevant details from your precis/memo

Then you write to fill in the gaps.

At the end of the week I will show you the exam

You will use your precis/memo combos to create an outline that you will develop into an answer for question

The best answers will draw from those module 4 readings too, so you'd best do some precis/memo combos for them as well as part of your studying