Philosophy:The stack

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Short description: Model for understanding the internet and computers as a global megastructure.

"The stack" is a term used in science and technology studies, the philosophy of technology and media studies to describe the multiple interconnected layers that computation depends on at a planetary scale. The term was introduced by Benjamin H. Bratton in a 2014 essay[1] and expanded upon in his 2016 book The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty,[2] and has been adapted, critiqued and expanded upon by numerous other scholars.

Use in scholarship

The stack refers to the entire global megastructure of interconnected computer systems. The stack includes not only technology and software, but also depends on human users, natural resources and corporate infrastructures.[citation needed]

The term draws upon the concept of the stack in programming and by the layered architecture of the Internet Protocol,[3] but provides a model at a planetary scale.

In an essay that is critical of Bratton's model, Geert Lovink proposes instead of referring to a singular stack we should speak of "a rainbow of a thousand stacks", such as Tiziana Terranova's "red stack"[4] or the "green stack" aiming to reduce the extreme energy use of blockchain and data centres.[5]

Stacks and layers

Different scholars have proposed different layers that make up the stack as they understand it. The layers often depend on what the scholar wants to research, whether it is a specific cultural context, such as the Chinese or European internet,[6][7] or a specific technology, as artificial intelligence[8] or self-driving cars.[9] The term has also been used to describe a model for ensuring diversity in the digital humanities.[10]

Bratton's six layers

Bratton proposed six interconnected layers: earth, cloud, city, address, interface and the user.

  1. Earth: Computing requires materials mined from the earth[11] and energy that is often generated by oil or coal, and they produce electronic waste. This layer provides the building blogs of the global digital stack.[7]
  2. Cloud: Global, usually corporate technology services like Google, which have a type of power Bogost calls a "weird sovereignty".[12]
  3. City: The lived experience of physically interacting with the global computer network in daily life, often discussed in relation to smart cities.
  4. Address: Identification of individual users and objects and its use for management and control.
  5. Interface: How users are connected to computers and systems.
  6. The user: The actual humans (and nonhumans) that interact with computers and computational systems.

Layers in "the Chinese stack"

Gabriele de Seta has proposed three additional layers that are needed to understand what he calls "the Chinese stack", which is not delimited to the borders of China but is entwined with planetary networks.[6] These layers maintain the focus on planetary computing and the internet as a global system, but support analysis of the connections - and lack of connections - between parts of the internet, and how this relates to power.

  1. Gateways: interfaces between systems allowing different types of data to be connected. QR codes are an example.
  2. Sieves: filters, blacklists, verification systems and regulations that provide access to parts of the internet to some users.
  3. Domes: enclosures that aim to control parts of the internet by shutting off access to the rest of the stack.[6]

Other layers

In an article on European digital sovereignty, Haroon Sheikh uses layers inspired by but not identical to Bratton's: the resource layer, the chips layer, the network layer, the cloud layer, the intelligence layer, the applications layer and the connected device layer.[7] Sheikh describes Bratton's layers as coming from a "more speculative philosophical approach", while his analysis is more pragmatic in that it aims to understand the digital capacities of the EU and therefore follows industry distinctions and leaves out users, while keeping the basic idea of a layered stack.[7]

Governance and power

The layered framework of the stack is often used to analyse how power, control and governance are enacted globally through technology. The stack has been used in the fields of economics and business to explain the connections between technology and global capitalism.[13]

Bratton discusses how sovereignty changes with global structures like the stack, with a shift from territorial or national sovereignty, where a geographically defined nation rules itself, to a system where a global corporation like Google can operate as a global sovereign.[14] This builds on Michel Foucault's theories of governmentality and power,[14] and Bratton's book has been described as possible to read as "a Foucaudian toolkit that lifts out the useful parts".[5]

Criticism

Although Bratton's book has been criticised as overly long and complex,[12] the term the stack is now commonly used in scholarship on the internet. In his critical essay "Stacktivism" (a reference to the perjorative term slacktivism) Geert Lovink describes the book as a "media theory classic" that is "inspiring to disagree with." Lovink further argues that the term "the stack" has become a "general container concept, in danger of becoming an empty signifier".[5]

References

  1. ↑ Bratton, Benjamin H. (2014). "The Black Stack" (in en). https://www.e-flux.com/journal/53/59883/the-black-stack/. 
  2. ↑ Bratton, Benjamin H. (2015). The stack: on software and sovereignty. Software studies. Cambridge, Mass. London: MIT press. ISBN 978-0-262-02957-5. 
  3. ↑ Bunz, Mercedes (2016). "Book Review: The Internet of Things: tracing a new field of enquiry" (in en). Media, Culture & Society 38 (8): 1278–1282. doi:10.1177/0163443716667066. ISSN 0163-4437. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443716667066. ""Although Bratton uses the Internet of Things just as one example among many, the phenomenon that the things around us are becoming media certainly fits the central claim of the book: we live in an age of planetary-scale computation and need to focus anew on the role of technology. This is also why Bratton warns the reader in his first sentence that besides ‘political philosophy’, ‘architectural theory, and software studies’, his book might ‘even [be] science fiction’ (p. xvii). The Stack is divided into three parts: the first explains Bratton’s concept of ‘the stack’ inspired by the layered architecture of the Internet protocol (p. xviii); the second and longest part introduces six different layers – earth, cloud, city, address, interface and the user – which are also linked to one another; the final part provides an account of what this might mean for our future."". 
  4. ↑ Terranova, Tiziana (2014). "Red Stack Attack! Algorithms, Capital and the Automation of the Common". in Mackay, Robin. #accelerate#: The Accelerationist Reader. Falmouth: Urbanomic. pp. 379–399. ISBN 978-0-9575295-5-7. https://www.academia.edu/8430149. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lovink, Geert (2020-11-09). "Principles of Stacktivism" (in en-US). TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society: 716–724. doi:10.31269/triplec.v18i2.1231. ISSN 1726-670X. https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1231. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 De Seta, Gabriele (2021). "Gateways, Sieves, and Domes: On the Infrastructural Topology of the Chinese Stack". International Journal of Communication 15. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/13972. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Sheikh, Haroon (2022-11-18). "European Digital Sovereignty: A Layered Approach" (in en). Digital Society 1 (3): 25. doi:10.1007/s44206-022-00025-z. ISSN 2731-4669. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-022-00025-z. ""The first layer is the most basic layer of the global digital stack and represents its natural building blocks. Benjamin Bratton refers to this as the Earth layer. We will here speak of the (natural) resource layer. Before any digital machine can operate, it needs specific materials in order to operate. Every technology requires specific natural resources. Coal drove the Industrial Revolution and oil was the crucial input of the era of mass production and the automobile. Similarly, digital technologies require specific resources. Apart from traditional energy, certain metals are especially important. The lightweight metal lithium is a critical input for the batteries of many electronic devices like mobile phones and laptops. Another important metal is cobalt, which is important as the cathode material used in lithium-ion batteries."". 
  8. ↑ Crawford, Kate (2021). Atlas of AI: power, politics, and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence. New Haven London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-20957-0. 
  9. ↑ Pizzi, Giorgio (2020-11-18). "Automotive in "The Stack": A Cross-sectional View of the Field from Earth, through Platforms and Nonhuman Users to Anti-Users". 2020 AEIT International Conference of Electrical and Electronic Technologies for Automotive (AEIT AUTOMOTIVE). IEEE. pp. 1–6. doi:10.23919/AEITAUTOMOTIVE50086.2020.9307402. ISBN 978-88-87237-49-8. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9307402. 
  10. ↑ Liu, Alan (2020). "Toward a Diversity Stack: Digital Humanities and Diversity as Technical Problem" (in en). Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 135 (1): 130–151. doi:10.1632/pmla.2020.135.1.130. ISSN 0030-8129. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0030812900127580/type/journal_article. 
  11. ↑ "This is where your smartphone battery begins" (in en). Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-for-lithium-ion-battery/. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Bogost, Ian (2017-02-16). "Ian Bogost reviews The Stack". Critical Inquiry. https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/ian_bogost_reviews_the_stack/. 
  13. ↑ Likavčan, Lukáš; Scholz-Wäckerle, Manuel (2022-07-30). "The Stack as an Integrative Model of Global Capitalism" (in en-US). TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society 20 (2): 147–162. doi:10.31269/triplec.v20i2.1343. ISSN 1726-670X. https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1343. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Tuters, Marc (2017-11-28). "Scenario Theory – Review of Benjamin H. Bratton, The Stack: on Software and Sovereignty". Computational Culture (6). http://computationalculture.net/scenario-theory-review-of-benjamin-h-bratton-the-stack-on-software-and-sovereignty/. 




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