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A Prehistory of the Cloud

We may imagine the digital cloud as placeless, mute, ethereal, and unmediated. Yet the reality of the cloud is embodied in thousands of massive data centers, any one of which can use as much electricity as a midsized town. Even all these data centers are only one small part of the cloud. Behind that cloud-shaped icon on our screens is a whole universe of technologies and cultural norms, all working to keep us from noticing their existence. In this book, Tung-Hui Hu examines the gap between the real and the virtual in our understanding of the cloud. Hu shows that the cloud grew out of such older networks as railroad tracks, sewer lines, and television circuits. He describes key moments in the prehistory of the cloud, from the game "Spacewar" as exemplar of time-sharing computers to Cold War bunkers that were later reused as data centers. Countering the popular perception of a new "cloudlike" political power that is dispersed and immaterial, Hu argues that the cloud grafts digital technologies onto older ways of exerting power over a population.OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

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Series Title
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Publisher
: The MIT Press.,
Collation
1 online resource (232 pages)
Language
English
ISBN/ISSN
0262330091
Classification
NONE
Content Type
text
Media Type
computer
Carrier Type
online resource
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Subject(s)
Computer Networks
Internet
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agus
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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/2291/A-Prehistory-of-the-Cloud
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