Course Description

Course List

MS 9326B-650 (Winter 2021)   Special Topic: Network Collapse

Instructor: N. Dyer-Witheford

Course Description
To understand how something works, study how it breaks. Fear the Internet will collapse has attended the network of networks almost from its inception, yet has so far been always been controverted by the increasing capacities of information  technologies. Yet the last few years have seen another rise in anxieties about the stability of the digital system now central to contemporary civilization. In this course we examine the various ways the Internet can fail, be it in one massive “wipeout” event or through an incremental accumulation of micro-collapses. Topics include the techno-economic architecture of the net, with its array of hubs and choke-points; so called “normal” accidents to power grids and networks; the consequences of cyber-crime and cyber-war; the mounting threats posed to digital and energy infrastructures by the fire and flood of climate change and the “slow shutdown” of increasing censorship and blackout by authoritarian states. The course will draw on materials both from high theorists of network society, such as Paul Virilio, Benjamin Bratton and Wendy Chun, and from more pragmatic perspectives on Internet breakdown such as emergency planners, software engineers, and cyber-security experts and will be open to a variety of student approaches. Imagine a pandemic plus an Internet blackout and decide if this is an important topic.

Course Syllabi for MS 9326B-650 (Winter 2021)
The syllabi for this course is a PDF file that requires a FIMS account to view

0.5 course



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