A Prehistory of the Cloud
云的前史
Authors: Tung-Hui Hu （胡腾辉）
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication Year: 2015
Pages: 240
About Book:
We may imagine the digital cloud as placeless, mute, ethereal, and unmediated. Yet the reality of the cloud is embodied in thousands of massive data centers, any one of which can use as much electricity as a midsized town. Even all these data centers are only one small part of the cloud. Behind that cloud-shaped icon on our screens is a whole universe of technologies and cultural norms, all working to keep us from noticing their existence. In this book, Tung-Hui Hu examines the gap between the real and the virtual in our understanding of the cloud.
Hu shows that the cloud grew out of such older networks as railroad tracks, sewer lines, and television circuits. He describes key moments in the prehistory of the cloud, from the game “Spacewar” as exemplar of time-sharing computers to Cold War bunkers that were later reused as data centers. Countering the popular perception of a new “cloudlike” political power that is dispersed and immaterial, Hu argues that the cloud grafts digital technologies onto older ways of exerting power over a population. But because we invest the cloud with cultural fantasies about security and participation, we fail to recognize its militarized origins and ideology. Moving between the materiality of the technology itself and its cultural rhetoric, Hu’s account offers a set of new tools for rethinking the contemporary digital environment.
关于书籍：
我们或许将数字云想象为无地点、静默、空灵且无中介的。然而，云的现实体现在成千上万个大型数据中心中，其中任何一个的耗电量都可能相当于一个中等规模的城镇。即便所有这些数据中心也仅仅是云的一小部分。在我们屏幕上那个云状图标的背后，是一整套技术与文化规范，它们共同作用使我们忽视其存在。在本书中，胡腾辉审视了我们对云的理解中真实与虚拟之间的鸿沟。
胡腾辉指出，云脱胎于铁路轨道、下水道线路、电视电路等更早的网络。他描述了云前史上的关键节点，从作为分时计算机范例的游戏《太空战争》到后来被改造为数据中心的冷战掩体。针对那种认为新型“类云”政治权力是分散且非物质的主流看法，胡腾辉提出反驳，认为云是将数字技术嫁接于对人口行使权力的旧有方式之上。但由于我们赋予了云关于安全与参与的文化幻想，我们未能认识到其军事化的起源与意识形态。胡腾辉的论述游走于技术的物质性与文化修辞之间，为重新思考当代数字环境提供了一套新的工具。
About Author：
Tung-Hui Hu, a former network engineer, is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Michigan and the recipient of a 2015 NEA literature fellowship.
关于作者
胡腾辉（Tung-Hui Hu）曾任网络工程师，现任密歇根大学英语系副教授，并曾获2015年美国国家艺术基金会（NEA）文学奖学金。
编译：刘鑫
