Networks

To the extent that it becomes more complex, an elementary fact becomes more evident: human society is, more than a set of people sharing a space, a set of relationships, a network of interactions of different kinds. In the next section we will deal with organizations, which formalize certain types of relational networks among humans. Networks are structures made up of discrete material elements connected to one another that perform distributed functions. In them, the organizational and managerial component is as important as the material structure, but what truly characterizes a network, beyond this, is its topology. We can say that the domain of existence of a network is a topological space. Networks constitute a substantial part of what is usually called the infrastructure of a society or a country.

On the other hand, later on we will see that all technological actions can be classified into three categories: transformations, storage, and transport. Thus, in a network there are flows of matter, energy, and information that circulate in multiple directions and are determined, according to different criteria, at the various nodes of the network. This difference, which is somewhat subtle, has to do with the fact that transport proper occupies only a minimal part of information access time. The Internet and its multimodal structure also allow a comparison with neural networks, which are the site—still only partly understood—where associative “emergent” phenomena occur, characteristic of what is glimpsed as the key to the functioning of the nervous system. Science-fiction conjectures then become possible about emergent phenomena that might occur once the Internet reaches the cognitive complexity of the brain of a relatively evolved species, or even of a human brain: might a global computer consciousness arise? In all human groups there are formal and informal networks of various types. Computer networks are spreading rapidly and, at present, under the general system of computer intercommunication, networks of interests are created daily that communicate electronically with one another. For that reason, the Internet is sometimes described as a “network of networks,” since in its origins it was composed of several circuits that were gradually interconnected. Today, many companies have their own electronic links that connect all their members and make it possible for many of them to have workplaces far from corporate headquarters. Some believe that this form of human work is becoming increasingly widespread.

Networks have a topological structure that can be complex: they link a certain number of nodes, at each of which a decision must be made about the route to follow. There are networks for transporting materials, such as road systems, railways, and airline routes; there are networks that essentially transport energy, such as electric power distribution networks, gas pipelines, and oil pipelines. There are networks that essentially transport information, such as the Internet, telephone networks, satellite systems, and cable television networks. Mail trucks traveling on highways carry information, and highways are equipped with telephones to request assistance and with other informational auxiliaries that regulate traffic.

A relatively simple example is that of a road network. Along Inca routes traveled people who carried, above all, vital information for the cohesion of a vast empire with a complex organization. In Europe, in the times of the Roman Empire, as later in Hitler’s era, roads served the military aims of the respective regimes, and troops and weaponry traveled along them.

Because a network is essentially a decentralized structure, its various participants must agree on technical details so that the flow circulating through the network can do so with the least possible amount of obstruction (“impedance”). Which side of the road one drives on is also such a case, as any driver who has had to drive in a country in the British sphere knows. The difficulties caused by the absence of such standards are evident and very common. For example, in the case of household electric power distribution networks we are witnessing a transition: two-prong cylindrical plugs are being replaced by triangular ones, causing many people to have needed to obtain one or another adapter. Likewise, forgetting that line voltage is not the same in different countries has “burned out” more than one appliance.

One of the most general standardizations being carried out in the world—although with considerable resistance from Anglophone countries—is the gradual universal acceptance of the metric system and the International System of Units (SI). But this point goes beyond the standardization of networks, touching instead on international standards in general.