Vital Networks: The Biological Turn in Computation, Communication, and Control By Sandra Robinson A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in Sociology in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada January 2014 Copyright © Sandra Robinson, 2014 Abstract Networks, such as the Internet, are comprised of dense information flows with expansive, multi-directional reach that continuously change—and this changeability is what keeps the network active, relative, and vital. I call the form of network exhibiting those dynamic features the vital network. This form of network is not simply the outcome of connectivity and communication between diverse affiliative objects and actors such as cell phones and humans that together convey a sense or feeling of ‘aliveness;’ it is the outcome of deliberate software programming goals for communication systems inspired by nonhuman, self-organizing biological life. The biological turn in computation produces an organizing logic for the vital network that self-propagates connections and disconnections, services, collectives, and structures proximal to forms that feel vital and dynamic. The vital network can do things, it has capacities to act, and different material consequences emerge out of the organization and coordination of communication with particular implications for human privacy, autonomy, and network transparency. In this dissertation, I examine the biological turn in computing as a crucial feature within a development program for the design of digital network control systems that rely on self-regulation and autonomous communication processes intentionally constructed to be non-transparent—to be unseen. I explore nonhuman models of control as a response to this requirement considered through three objects: microbe, simulation, and control, each understood in process terms that disclose what these things do and how they act. It is appropriate to the concerns of this dissertation to think of these as object-processes ii occurring within three moments or transverse becomings: first, in terms of Gilles Deleuze’s notion of differentiation from the one to the many; secondly, from organism to simulation through the use of models to describe microbial processes in informatic terms; and finally, from description to control through the progression in computing from an emphasis on structure and descriptive procedures, to processes of control. Given that so much of contemporary life is structured by communication technology, my study points to the need for an ethics of control to imagine how much and how deep control should go when considering the organization appropriate to our shared, technically enabled, sphere of communication. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my dissertation committee of Rob Beamish, Christine Overall, my external examiner, Claire Colebrook, and Allison Goebel who graciously stepped in to serve on my committee at the last moment. Each of you challenged me in ways that were thoughtful and constructive, and I enjoyed the opportunity to engage with each of you at my defense. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my supervisor Myra Hird for her intellectual attention to my work and for supporting me across this long project—thank you, Myra, for your support and your many contributions along this intellectual journey. I would also like to thank Sheryl Hamilton who provided particular expertise, intellectual engagement, and inspiration as an additional committee member from outside the Queen’s community. I am also very grateful for the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University. Toward the end of this project, I also had the support of colleagues at Carleton University, in the Communication Studies Program within the School of Journalism and Communication, who encouraged me at every turn. And finally, I would like to thank my many friends and family including Pam, Sacha, Heather, Roger, Karyn, Bruce, David, and especially my parents for their unparalleled support and love. Without you I would not have made it through my annus horribilis and arrived here, which is, afterall, really another beginning. iv Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... v List of Tables .................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... ix Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Two: The Literature Review: Outlines, Edges, and Spaces ................................. 15 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 15 Control .................................................................................................................. 17 Networks .............................................................................................................................. 17 Cybernetics .......................................................................................................................... 22 From Cybernetics to the Artificial Sciences .......................................................... 28 Self-organization ................................................................................................... 32 The Self-organizing Organism ..................................................................................... 34 Ants ....................................................................................................................................... 34 Microbes .............................................................................................................................. 38 Life-Like and Like Life ............................................................................................ 42 Autonomy ............................................................................................................. 47 Autonomy in Biological Systems: Autopoesis ................................................................ 49 Systems and Second-order Cybernetics ........................................................................... 52 Autonomy in Digital Systems ................................................................................................ 54 Posthumanism ...................................................................................................... 59 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 67 Chapter Three Theory and Methodology ......................................................................... 69 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 69 Theorizing the Vital Network ................................................................................ 72 Vitalism ................................................................................................................................. 72 Communication ................................................................................................................. 76 Assemblages: A Space of Possibility ......................................................................... 81 Models and Simulations ............................................................................................... 85 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 90 The Research Process ..................................................................................................... 92 v Chapter Summary ............................................................................................... 107 Chapter Four From a Philosophy of Objects to a Philosophy of Process ........................ 113 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 113 Thinking With Matter ......................................................................................... 115 Thinking With Bergson ........................................................................................ 120 Thinking With Deleuze ........................................................................................ 125 Univocity ............................................................................................................................ 134 Synthesis ............................................................................................................................. 136 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 137 Chapter Five Vital Communication ................................................................................. 140 Introduction .......................................................................................................