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The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty
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The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty Hardback - 2016 - 1st Edition

by Benjamin H. Bratton

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A comprehensive political and design theory of planetary-scale computation proposing that The Stack--an accidental megastructure--is both a technological apparatus and a model for a new geopolitical architecture.

What has planetary-scale computation done to our geopolitical realities? It takes different forms at different scales--from energy and mineral sourcing and subterranean cloud infrastructure to urban software and massive universal addressing systems; from interfaces drawn by the augmentation of the hand and eye to users identified by self--quantification and the arrival of legions of sensors, algorithms, and robots. Together, how do these distort and deform modern political geographies and produce new territories in their own image?

In The Stack, Benjamin Bratton proposes that these different genres of computation--smart grids, cloud platforms, mobile apps, smart cities, the Internet of Things, automation--can be seen not as so many species evolving on their own, but as forming a coherent whole: an accidental megastructure called The Stack that is both a computational apparatus and a new governing architecture. We are inside The Stack and it is inside of us.

In an account that is both theoretical and technical, drawing on political philosophy, architectural theory, and software studies, Bratton explores six layers of The Stack: Earth, Cloud, City, Address, Interface, User. Each is mapped on its own terms and understood as a component within the larger whole built from hard and soft systems intermingling--not only computational forms but also social, human, and physical forces. This model, informed by the logic of the multilayered structure of protocol "stacks," in which network technologies operate within a modular and vertical order, offers a comprehensive image of our emerging infrastructure and a platform for its ongoing reinvention.

The Stack is an interdisciplinary design brief for a new geopolitics that works with and for planetary-scale computation. Interweaving the continental, urban, and perceptual scales, it shows how we can better build, dwell within, communicate with, and govern our worlds.

thestack.org

Details

  • Title The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty
  • Author Benjamin H. Bratton
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 528
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher MIT Press
  • Publication date 2016-02
  • Features Bibliography, Index
  • ISBN 9780262029575 / 026202957X
  • Weight 2.3 lbs (1.04 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.7 in (23.37 x 18.54 x 4.32 cm)
  • Age range 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Category Computers - Languages / Programming
  • Library of Congress subjects Ubiquitous computing, Computer software - Human factors
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2015011448
  • Dewey Decimal Code 004

About the author

Benjamin H. Bratton is a theorist whose work spans philosophy, computer science, and design. He is Associate Professor of Visual Arts and Director of the Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego. He is also Visiting Professor of Critical Studies at SCI-Arc (the Southern California Institute of Architecture) and Professor of Digital Design at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

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The Stack – On Software and Sovereignty (Software Studies)

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by Bratton, Benjamin H

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