Networks and the philosophy of noise

Abstract

Although in communication the message replaces noise, noise is an integral part of the message itself. The post‐war period is one of an intensified attempt to think of communication and noise together, so that the latter does not appear only as the source of disorder but also as the material part of communication. Noise is thus absolutely necessary for communication. On the other hand, in order to make a shared meaning possible, a remarkable part of this noise has to be excluded. Furthermore, communication has to be given a form in order to be distinguished from noise. Yet communication itself cannot be given any single form, for it escapes all formalizations. This movement of sharing and excluding, form‐giving and fleeing from organization, is what determines the field of communication. This article investigates the ways in which this movement has found expression in the writings of Serres, Girard, Latour and Callon.

Keywords:

• noise
• communication
• ontology
• networks
• Callon
• Girard
• Latour
• Serres

Notes

1. In his book Cybernetics or control and communication in the animal and the machine (1948), Wiener encapsulated his thoughts concerning self‐directing mechanisms based on a feedback principle. In a book published a couple of years later, titled The human use of human beings: Cybernetics and society (1950), he wished to popularize his ideas for a larger audience and also to direct more attention to the social dimensions of cybernetics.

2. It is possible to make a distinction between politics and the political. Politics can be conceived as a whole consisting of technical practices, forms of knowledge, institutions and ordinances, whereas the political refers to the ontological space in and through which political action can be recognized and defined specifically as political. If the possibility of disagreement is characteristic of politics, as is thought in political philosophy, the concept of the political refers to area or space enabling this disagreement or strife.