keywords

Something that came to mind more than once as I read Alexander Galloway’s “Networks” and Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization is how changes in technology can change the meaning of words. In the same way that Raymond Williams traced the evolving definitions of certain words in Keywords, Galloway also notes words that have changed with advances in technology and tech’s rise in ubiquity. As Kelly mentioned, “Networks” comes from “Critical Terms for Media Studies”, which I’d assume builds off the strategy of Keywords. In “Networks”, Galloway notes that network “is a compound formed from the Old Saxon words net, an open-weave fabric used for catching or confining animals or objects, and werk, both an act of doing and the structure or thing resulting from the act” (283) while for “media studies the term appears most often in analyses of communications technologies” (283). Today, it is so easy to think of networks mainly related to technology and communication: the Internet, social networks, “to network”, etc. As Galloway notes, network is applicable to “material and industrial systems” and “the biological and life sciences” (283), among other fields and systems.

Protocol is another word that has had its meanings and assumptions morph alongside changes in technology. In Protocol, Galloway writes, “Prior to its usage in computing, protocol referred to any type of correct or proper behavior within a specific system of conventions” (7). He also notes that protocol used to have a definitional bearing related to etiquette. Technology, specifically digital computing, has changed the meaning of protocol. According to Galloway, “Now, protocols refer specifically to standards governing the implementation of specific technologies” (7). Before reading Galloway, I had assumed that protocol’s meaning was strictly based in the realm of security measures. While protocol is part of security measures as Galloway notes in his description of protocols against nuclear attacks, the word originally had a more diplomatic or social meaning before the rise of digital computing. All of this is to say that not only can technology change us as users (per Marshall McLuhan), it can also affect our semantics.