-- AllysonChavez - 30 Oct 2023

The Parasite embodied: The Quiet-not-so body of The Network

The network, which we view as The internet, is alive. As Professor Moglen noted in class, Mathematician Claude Shannon, known as the pioneer of information theory, was asked ‘Can machines think?“ He replied, “Yes. I compute so... I am a machine, and you are a machine, and you can think, can’t you?” We must regard the parasite as an entity, an agent, or, in the words of Professor Jane Bennet, an actant created by software. The software structure that makes up what we know as “the internet” is better understood as an organism. Professor Moglen describes this organism as a parasitic one, naming it “The Parasite.” This organism is parasitic because it lives off human attention in exchange for making our lives “better.” Why, then, are we not scared or freaked out by this organism that exists around us the same way electricity does? I believe that is because we cannot see it. When humans cannot see a tangible body, it becomes harder to comprehend the power this thing has on human behavior. One way to overcome this human blindness, or “double consciousness,” is by adopting a definition of matter that allows something like electricity to be an actant rather than an object. We must detach materiality from the idea of passive and mechanical substances. There is nothing passive about the parasite. Here, I borrow the term “Vibrant matter” coined by Professor Jane Bennet. Vital materialism that sees matter as vibrant could allow us to see The Parasite finally. The vital materialism of vibrant matters recognizes the liveliness of things humans deem unalive. Crystals are an example of how Inorganic matter is capable of self-organization. In the case of electricity, “or the stream of vital materialities called electrons, is always on the move, going somewhere, though where this will be is not entirely predictable. Electricity sometimes goes where we send it, and sometimes it chooses its path on the spot, in response to the other bodies it encounters and the surprising opportunities for actions and interactions they afford.” ( Bennett, Jane, 1957- author. Vibrant Matter: a Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.) By choosing, I mean when electricity selects the path of least resistance. How do these electrons know? By thinking of electricity as made up of vibrant matter, we can see that these electrons carry knowledge. Choosing the path of least resistance requires electrons to make a choice, and it is the knowledge that is inherent in their body that informs that choice.

Looking at the unalive thing we see as the internet as made up of vibrant, lively matter, we begin to uncover the parasite's body. The organs of this parasite are sites such as Facebook, X, and Instagram. As Professor Moglen explains, “Those organs behave in a simple fashion. They metabolize human attention. . . . and they emit pheromones that stimulate more attention. And so the parasite . . .you’re aware of the fact that it begins to change the structure and function of the human body and mind.” This parasite has changed the human body and mind because it has altered how people relate, communicate, and behave toward each other. Before the Parasite, “[t]he nature of human contact was very different.” Websites like Facebook, X, and Instagram create a false sense of availability -- the person who has Instagram, Facebook, or X must meet the expectation of instantly responding. If the person doesn’t react to the stimulus delivered by the parasite, there are social consequences. People will think that you do not care about them, that they are not necessary. This backlash is present because the parasite has made us addicted to the constant stimulus of attention, thus securing its survival through our fear and inability to be alone. Like true addicts, we have agreed to sell ourselves for our continuous fix of stimulus and response. However, we fail to see that “each one of those interactions makes a link for the machine, correlates stimulus and response. And there’s the software organisms, organs of a larger thing, collecting, metabolizing that attention, and stimulating the production of more attention, which is called “engagement” in the political economy of now. “

The parasite has changed how we relate to other bodies by making itself the necessary connection conduit. We, therefore, “ are more capable or at any rate more determined to interact than any human being that you know. . . Trillions of times a day across the human race, reinforcing the parasite’s understanding of how to gain human attention. . . Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, remembered forever, nothing lost or stolen or destroyed, every byte all of it there in the parasite’s memory.” Our dependence on stimuli means that we live within the biological radius of the Parasite because it cannot sustain itself without metabolizing human attention. It makes us believe that through it we are closer to other humans as ever better. In reality, this “connectedness” requires my physical body to be distant from other bodies to be nearer. The parasite stands, at all times, between you and anyone who you direct message on Instagram.

A concept of vibrant matter allows us to see that the internet is a parasite, as real as protozoa, helminths, and ectoparasites. This Parasite is a living organism surrounding you, watching you, metabolizing all at once. The fact that this parasite is not embodied in a way Western dualism of organic(alive)/inorganic matter(nonalive) can comprehend does not mean that the parasite is not alive.