to nodes and edges, for networks are about edging: pulsations that frustrate neat separations and create sticky connections between the molecular and the molar. Understanding the difference between the experience of flows and maps is important, and understanding the generative nature of contact is central to reimagining networks. However, the double-faced nature of networks, as both trace and flow, is exactly what makes networks so compelling. Networks spatialize the temporal by tracing and projecting: by being both too early and too late. Networks are both science fiction and the historical present. The which allegedly offers a trace of our data packets, UNIX command “traceroute,” illustrates this point nicely. To work, the tool sends out a series of packets “traceroute” with increasing TTL (Time to Live) values, starting with one the “hop.” Whenever the router at which the packet expires sends a message back to the packet “dies” originating machine. However, since packets can take different routes through the network and since many routers will refuse TTL error messages, this is not “trace” entirely reliable. Through timed TTL settings, offers us a pastiche of “traceroute” packets to map what allegedly has been, is, and will be. Networks also spatialize the temporal by imagining and creating connections, by cutting up amorphous space into lines. CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) also exemplifies this logic. At first, the idea that cell phones comprise a network seems strange, since all transmitters and receivers send their signals into the air. Technically speaking, a cell is not a single phone, but rather the area covered by one cell phone tower. To create networks, cell phone networks such as CDMA use different frequency bands and individuating codes to to encode and decode signals between a single transmitter and the “create” connections:
to nodes and edges, for networks are about edging: pulsations that frustrate neat separations and create sticky connections between the molecular and the molar. Understanding the difference between the experience of flows and maps is important, and understanding the generative nature of contact is central to reimagining networks. However, the double-faced nature of networks, as both trace and flow, is exactly what makes networks so compelling. Networks spatialize the temporal by tracing and projecting: by being both too early and too late. Networks are both science fiction and the historical present. The UNIX command “traceroute,” which allegedly offers a trace of our data packets, illustrates this point nicely. To work, the “traceroute” tool sends out a series of packets with increasing TTL (Time to Live) values, starting with one “hop.” Whenever the packet “dies” the router at which the packet expires sends a message back to the originating machine. However, since packets can take different routes through the network and since many routers will refuse TTL error messages, this “trace” is not entirely reliable. Through timed TTL settings, “traceroute” offers us a pastiche of packets to map what allegedly has been, is, and will be. Networks also spatialize the temporal by imagining and creating connections, by cutting up amorphous space into lines. CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) also exemplifies this logic. At first, the idea that cell phones comprise a network seems strange, since all transmitters and receivers send their signals into the air. Technically speaking, a cell is not a single phone, but rather the area covered by one cell phone tower. To create networks, cell phone networks such as CDMA use different frequency bands and individuating codes to “create” connections: to encode and decode signals between a single transmitter and the
Wendy%20Chun%20-%20Chapter%201%20(DRAFT).docx