The Exploit

The Exploit: A Theory of Networks is the study of our now much-relied-upon system of networks, with a discussion that there is an inherent belief of thought that networks favor equality across all time and space. The authors would ask that we take a second look at this assumption.

                Before going too much into my thoughts, I did find the authors use of italic paragraphs to summarize their [sometimes] difficult to penetrate their thought processes, especially when the subject matter was so varied, especially when discussing topics as vastly apart as bioterrorism and 1890 punch cards to describe the subject of network science.

                Perhaps the one item that I picked up on initially was the “war on terror” and the media’s role in a battle that has not ended yet, not in Iraq or Afghanistan, and with more trouble spots in many more regions around the globe. 

The role that communications and information networks have played in international terrorism and the “war on terror” has meant that media have now become a core component of war and political conflict.

               

                This is true in the sense that never before have we had a 24-hour media-based society at a time when the world is at war. And we hear about every single thing that happens. Now we may not hear about everything from every network, news agency, blogger, celebrity with a cause, etc., but the information is out there, and being sent to use via the many routes that information can take today. This is what the authors state as “the everydayness of the digital (e-mail, mobile phones, the Internet)” p. 10.      I found some interest in the author’s discussion about the necessity of the West to name an object, event, discovery, etc. And the possibility that the ‘naming convention’ itself is flawed.  It brought to my mind the conflict in Egypt and how the U.S. media was quick to take a descriptive term of ‘democracy’ to label the eruption in mass protests in January 2011 against the decades of rule under President Hosni Mubarak.  After 18 days of angry protests and after losing of the support of the military and the United States, Mr. Mubarak resigned on Feb. 11, ending 30 years of autocratic rule. The military stepped forward and took power.
                Our networks provide us a lot of information at our fingertips, but maybe not a way to use it. It reminds me of the blossoming of the term ‘analytics’ at many companies, and the strategy to use the information and data in hand to compete with other companies.