Imagine rain. Now imagine rain but upwards, from the ground to the sky. The Cloud represents the condensation of our data streams. Above mere representation of digital flows and flaws, the imprint of this ephemeral conglomerate is very much real and convoluted. Climbing from the oceans and descending from the sky: pairings of protocols of send and receive. Synchronisation between local and global. Between the I and the yous.
The imprint of the cloud is very much physical and it will become a much bigger imprint in the future. A digital colossus spread under our skin and above the planet, whose actual state can not and should not be concealed by innocuous looking fluffy clouds. What these graphical iterations represent is the lubricant that keeps the economy going, the people connected and the planet bearing the weight of all digital era and its server farms. Data is the new ciphered currency. Data is the new oil.
I urge not to promote this telematic utopia. I urge for a demystification of the Cloud, a revealing of its singularity.
Our intentions and desires continue to systematically float above, far away from the reach of our bodies. On their way to the sky we are able to forget, knowing it will be stored as long as the cloudy weather remains. Turned into data, our dreams are monetized by the promise of prediction. With each request to the server we relinquish our humanity. Only when we bring the cloud back to the ground, restoring the force of gravity in a heavy rain which feeds the rivers and lakes that water our bodies, will we be able to recover what is lost. The bigger the cloud, the darker and dryer it gets.
ReplyDeleteData is the new oil! Turning every single object and human into data have always been my biggest concern. Lately I revised my ideas towards it, not optimistic or the opposite about it, but seeing some potential in it, the problem is not about the cloud or the data but who owns it. My idea is to go with its flow, speculate and reclaim, try get the best out of it instead of reducing it to an evil
ReplyDeleteOil's metaphor brings me memories of an occult book. Oil there is described as a Narrative organiser and lubricant, as the narrative of progress in our modern era starts and is structured around our use of fossil fuels. And it's deeply occult, as everyone seems entangled in its viscosity, yet you cannot see a way out, nor understand who's behind it. Almost as if Oil itself had some kind of will on its own, and was patiently waiting in the depth of the earth waiting for us to reveal its nature.
ReplyDeleteData on the contrary is not related to the narrative of the ground (chtonic, nether, earth) and it's a way more pyramidal (or phallic) hierarchy as the power is clearly hold by few entities on top of the cloud. If Oil is the cult of Nether, Data must be the cult of Ether. Don't know if its scarier or clearer in this way.