This reading was very long however there I do have some key takeaway ideas from my reading.

The reading discussed how the terms ‘diagram’, ‘technology’ and ‘management style’ come together in the modern age to define a new ‘apparatus of control’. The diagram refers to a distributed network resembling a web, technology is the computer and the management style is protocol.

Galloway ponders how the rise of technology will affect our future society and in particular thinks about who will have power and control. The theorist, Deleuze, believes we will exist in societies of control. They will operate with machines, information technology and computers. In this sense, Galloway and Deleuze say that power will no longer reside to the government as command and control will be able to move around.

Galloway speaks about computer protocol and defines it as a ‘set of recommendations and rules that outline specific technical standards’. On the internet, one such body of protocol is known as RFC (request for comments) documents. They are used by engineers who want to build hardware or software to meet common specifications.

Besides this, all this talk about control societies made me start imaging the premises for future dystopian worlds (both fictional and real!)