Christopher Vitale
Media and Critical/Visual Studies Pratt Institute
notes
1 Graham Harman, “On Vicarious Causation,” Collapse II, 171-205.
2 See Bruno Latour, “Irreductions,” trans. John Law, in The Pasteurization of France, trans. Alan Sheridan and John Law. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.)
3 Alain Badiou, Logics of Worlds: Being and Event II, trans. Alberto Toscano (London: Continuum, 2009).
4 Graham Harman, Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects. (Chi-cago: Open Court, 2002.)
5 See Tool-Being, 243-268.
6 Logics of Worlds, 226.
7 Graham Harman, “On the Undermining of Objects: Grant, Bruno and Radical Philosophy,” In: The Speculative Turn, ed. Levi Bryant, Nick Srnicek, Graham Harman (Melbourne: re.press, forthcoming 2010).
8 Graham Harman, The Quadruple Object (Winchester, uk: Zer0 Books, forthcom-ing 2011). The book will appear some months earlier in French translation:
L’objet quadruple, trans. Olivier Dubouclez (Paris: puf, forthcoming 2010).
9 Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. (Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 1970.)
10 Quentin Meillassoux, After Finitude: Essay on the Necessity of Contingency, page 3. Emphasis removed. Trans. Ray Brassier. (London: Continuum, 2008.)
Networkologies
A Manifesto, Section I
Christopher Vitale
Media and Critical/Visual Studies Pratt Institute
Networkologies: A Manifesto, Section I Note to the Reader
[The following essay presents excerpts from the soon to be completed work in progress entitled Networkologies – A Manifesto: Towards A New Philosophy of Networks. This book is the second and central book in the projected networkologies series. The manuscript for the first book in the series, The Networked Mind: A New Image of Thought for a Hyperconnected Age, is complete, and currently being proofread in preparation for solicitation for publication. This text provides the preparatory context for a philosophy of networks by placing this endeavor within the context of philosophical and scientific debates of the twentieth century. By means of examinations of recent developments in artificial neural networks, cognitive neuroscience, and contemporary continental philosophy and critical theory, The Networked Mind works to demonstrate the need for the philosophy of networks developed in Networkologies – A Manifesto.
A network is a diagram for the thinking of relation. This diagram, which does not merely describe relation, but performs it, can help us to understand the structure, dynamics, and potentials of our networked age. Networkological thought works to extract the potential meanings, concepts, programs, and perspectives which the network diagram makes available to us, and it is with this in mind that the primary commitment of a philosophy of networks must be to the thinking of relation, and to understanding what relation could mean in regard to the network diagram.
The text is written in manifesto form, and as such uses mostly propositional language and minimal citations, so that the entirety of the system can be presented in microcosm. The graphic format of the text aims to demonstrate what a networkological text looks like, a matter which is discussed in the text itself.
The first section of the manifesto, which comprises the body of this article, is divided into two parts: orientations (comprised of principles and forms, and diagrammatology. Within the section on orientations, the principles segment describes the basic principles which guide the networkological project, while the forms segment describes the manner in which these principles manifest themselves within the presentation of networkological thought. The section entitled diagrammatology describes the network diagram itself in its many permutations, so as to demonstrate how an entire worldview can be extracted therefrom. Forthcoming sections of the manifesto then perform the work of developing an ontology and ethics based on the intersection of the network diagram with the notions of the oneand amd the commitment to relation, which are the primary ontological and ethical notions, respectively, which structure the networkological endeavor.]
Networkologies
a manifesto
The network is increasingly one of the fundamental metaphors whereby we have described the character of our age. Despite this, there has yet to be a
philosophy of networks, a philosophy which takes the network as its foundation.1 A networkological approach aims to address this fact.
A network is a diagram for the thinking of relation. This diagram, which does not merely describe relation, but performs it, can help us to understand the
structure, dynamics, and potentials of our networked age.
Our age is one in which relation is increasing, reified entities are being reworked, and previously existent relations are becoming ever more evident.
These changes, which have given rise to what might be called the ‘networked age,’ are partially due to the rise of the Internet, the World Wide Web, global capitalism, etc. But such changes cannot be reduced to the sum of their parts,
they are always the result of the interplay of material and ideal, actual and virtual.
From the networkological perspective, the entire world can be viewed as composed of networks. A chair is a network, and so are atoms, concepts, words, societies, organisms, brains, economies, etc. Understanding the
different types of networks, their modes of structuration, appearing, interaction, and potentials, is the work that needs to be done to create a
philosophy of networks.
To paraphrase a famous philosopher – “To those who look at the world networkedly, the world will look networkedly back.”2 This is the fundamental wager of the networkological endeavor. The networkological perspective takes
Networkologies: A Manifesto, Section I Note to the Reader
[The following essay presents excerpts from the soon to be completed work in progress entitled Networkologies – A Manifesto: Towards A New Philosophy of Networks. This book is the second and central book in the projected networkologies series. The manuscript for the first book in the series, The Networked Mind: A New Image of Thought for a Hyperconnected Age, is complete, and currently being proofread in preparation for solicitation for publication. This text provides the preparatory context for a philosophy of networks by placing this endeavor within the context of philosophical and scientific debates of the twentieth century. By means of examinations of recent developments in artificial neural networks, cognitive neuroscience, and contemporary continental philosophy and critical theory, The Networked Mind works to demonstrate the need for the philosophy of networks developed in Networkologies – A Manifesto.
A network is a diagram for the thinking of relation. This diagram, which does not merely describe relation, but performs it, can help us to understand the structure, dynamics, and potentials of our networked age. Networkological thought works to extract the potential meanings, concepts, programs, and perspectives which the network diagram makes available to us, and it is with this in mind that the primary commitment of a philosophy of networks must be to the thinking of relation, and to understanding what relation could mean in regard to the network diagram.
The text is written in manifesto form, and as such uses mostly propositional language and minimal citations, so that the entirety of the system can be presented in microcosm. The graphic format of the text aims to demonstrate what a networkological text looks like, a matter which is discussed in the text itself.
The first section of the manifesto, which comprises the body of this article, is divided into two parts: orientations (comprised of principles and forms, and diagrammatology. Within the section on orientations, the principles segment describes the basic principles which guide the networkological project, while the forms segment describes the manner in which these principles manifest themselves within the presentation of networkological thought. The section entitled diagrammatology describes the network diagram itself in its many permutations, so as to demonstrate how an entire worldview can be extracted therefrom. Forthcoming sections of the manifesto then perform the work of developing an ontology and ethics based on the intersection of the network diagram with the notions of the oneand amd the commitment to relation, which are the primary ontological and ethical notions, respectively, which structure the networkological endeavor.]
Networkologies
a manifesto
The network is increasingly one of the fundamental metaphors whereby we have described the character of our age. Despite this, there has yet to be a
philosophy of networks, a philosophy which takes the network as its foundation.1 A networkological approach aims to address this fact.
A network is a diagram for the thinking of relation. This diagram, which does not merely describe relation, but performs it, can help us to understand the
structure, dynamics, and potentials of our networked age.
Our age is one in which relation is increasing, reified entities are being reworked, and previously existent relations are becoming ever more evident.
These changes, which have given rise to what might be called the ‘networked age,’ are partially due to the rise of the Internet, the World Wide Web, global capitalism, etc. But such changes cannot be reduced to the sum of their parts, they are always the result of the interplay of material and ideal, actual and
virtual.
From the networkological perspective, the entire world can be viewed as composed of networks. A chair is a network, and so are atoms, concepts, words, societies, organisms, brains, economies, etc. Understanding the
different types of networks, their modes of structuration, appearing, interaction, and potentials, is the work that needs to be done to create a
philosophy of networks.
To paraphrase a famous philosopher – “To those who look at the world networkedly, the world will look networkedly back.”2 This is the fundamental wager of the networkological endeavor. The networkological perspective takes
orientations
[principles] Relation, Process, Reification, Refraction [forms] Method, Discipline, Text, Context, Immanence, Networkologies, Groundingsdiagrammatology
Diagram, Precision, Intensity, Topology, Combination, Symmetry, Difference, Identity, Societies, Combinatories, Dynamics, Systems, Genetics, Levels[Forthcoming Sections:]
matrixology
[extension and appearance] Matrix, Extension, Mattering, Actuality, World, Self-Differing, Paradox, Quandry, Obstacle, Opening, Potential, Privacy, Mind, Complexity [mnemosystemics and combinatorics]Memory, Intertwining, Form, Structure, Virtuality, Manifestation, Governing, Understanding, Affection, Mentalities, Machines, Life, Memory System, Evolution, Persons, Perception, Awareness, Excess, Qualities, Experience, Horizon, Excess, Brains, Consciousness, Modulation, Self-Consciousness, Wideware, Quasi-Life, Plexes, Culture, Semiotics, Mediology, Meaning, Psychology, Emotions, Mental Structures, Emotional Structures, Psyche, Metabolics, Reflection, Intuition, Praxis, Knowledge, Objects, Metaphysics, Adaptation, Problematics, Critique, Experimentation, Landscape, Meta-Understanding, Philosophy, Meta-Philosophy, Relationalism, Fundament, Synergy [freedom and opening] Freedom, The Virtual, Universe, Opening, Generation