Actor Network Theory

Within modern computing, every actant acts on or is acted upon by at least one other actant, in order to fulfil the aims of the assemblage.” Discuss this statement by following the tasks below.

The essay describes Actor-network theory on two recent computing news and argues on the topic “Within modern computing, every actant acts on or is acted upon by at least one other actant, to fulfill the aims of the assemblage.” The theory identifies the actors and their category including digital, software, and hardware, human, structural or cultural in both cases. The essay also describes the acts of those actants on each other and the behavioral changes occur due to the actions as well as how the situation helps in enhancing management.  Apart from this, the essay also discusses the case on behalf of some famous persons (Morozov, Nicholas Carr and Clay Shirky).

Actor-network theory or ANT was originated from the ideas of the fields like sociology and anthropology. The theory considers every component of society is a part of social network. The living and non-living entities have the same importance as well as influence the society (Alexander and Silvis 2014). The theory is based on mainly two components the actor and the network.  

Actor: The actor can be anything including human, hardware, software, instrument, etc. and they have impacts on the network.

Network: The actors and their work together create the network.

In a society, everything is related to each other in a way. As an example, in an IT company, there are many departments like marketing, sales, accounting, HR, IT as well as R & D and networking. Every department has individual entities like employees, machine, server, room, particular software (Bootstrap, JavaBeans for IT, MS Office Account express for accounting department). The entities are called the actors, and they together complete the department, which is the example of the network. All the departments together complete the IT Company as well as creating a larger network. In the network hierarchy, the departments are the subset of the company and the departments are the superset of employees. Thus for the company, departments and other external factors are actors and for departments, the departmental entities are the actors.  The theory also defines some other terms like intermediaries, mediators as well as concepts like Translation and Quasi-object, etc.

Intermediaries: The act of intermediaries has no impact on network thus; it can be ignored.

Relevance of ANT in Computing

Mediators: The mediators can differ in the output of the network.

Translation & Quasi-object: The concept of Translation means a centralized network where all the actors agree with the concept and defend it. The Quasi-object moves on the network like a token in the ring network.

However, the actor-network theory was originated in the field of sociology, but the theory is now applied in other fields due to its distinct object-indicative approach. In computing the actor network, the method can precisely find out the problems and solution in a technical network. Detecting the issues can lead the network towards the path of technological progress.

Precise Reality: The ANT approach is distinct from the other research approaches. Active network theory has a dynamic approach as it takes all the elements as its actors. In the way, the theory does not miss a single relation between entities and its impact which in another research approach may neglect considering trivial. As an example, In the IT department if due to particular machine issues an efficient employee misses his target of submitting a job in time, the impact covers the employee performance, department performance as well as the company performance. The machine issue is an important actant in the ANT, but some other approach may miss the component.

Recognition of multiplicity: The ANT can recognize the multiple realities of its objects and relate the ideas from a different perspective. The effects may not have any particular origin, but they come from this origin. In the case of an IT company, the base level employee (Ex: data entry operator) reduction is a minor issue for middle-level management as recruiting this kind of staffs is easy but the sudden reduction of such employees can increase pressure on workload, so this is an important issue for the base level management (Tomlinson et al. 2013). Therefore, the value of the same subject is distinct from a different perspective.

Detecting micro process in complex Environment: Generally, from the theoretical standpoint, components are divided into micro and macro components. Research approaches typically have a tendency to search troubles in the macro systems, which consist of many Microsystems. Therefore, the approaches miss the problems in Microsystems. The ANT considers each element as the actor and searches the interaction as well as the impact of the items on other (Farias and Bender 2012). Therefore, this approach does not miss any issue. In the present scenario, for an IT company employee confliction in a particular department can delay the work as well as the performance of the department. The performance issue can create further troubles in the teams of the company thus increasing complexity for the enterprise. The micro process (employee confliction) thus troubles the whole network (company).

Computing News 1

According to IEEE Spectrum (March 15, 2016), five major cases (hospital site hacking) raises the finger towards the vulnerabilities of cyber security (Spectrum.ieee.org 2016). From the information, nearly 2000 copies of X-ray were downloaded illegally from hospital site (China) due to an older version of OS in machine and devices.  As the OS versions are old, the hospitals do no connect their systems to the internet (Khurana 2015). However, to update the firmware an employee connects some system to the internet and finds out the machine unserviceable with malware.

   Identification of Actors: In the computing news 1, the actors are the hospital, the hospital site, the hospital machines, OS used, the employee, firmware as well as the unknown downloader.

Categories of Actors: The digital, software, hardware, human, structural, cultural actors are the site, firmware/OS, machine, employee/downloader, the internet, affect of hacking respectively.

Action and Impact of action: In this case, the hospital site is changed due to the employee ignorance as nearly 2000 copies of patient X-ray downloaded. These types of download bring a structural shift in the society on the ethical issues. The employee later knew that some Chinese natives could not get permission to leave China due to infectious lungs diseases. The downloaded copies (clear reports) may be helpful to them. Therefore, these copies can help in illegal immigration thus creating cultural conflict. The older version of OS damaged the machine as well as loose valuable information. Here the networks are the hospitals and the internet and both face problems due to the actors.

Increasing Security Management: According to the topic, the older version of OS is the negative factor. A hospital needs to connect to the internet. Therefore, the absence of internet connection cannot be a practical option. The hospital should regularly update its OS; add anti-virus/anti-malware in the system etc. Apart from this, the ISPs should deal with the ethical issues in ICT and hacking as well as increase awareness and cyber security.

According to Tech Crunch (March 2016), Microsoft had brought the game Minecraft for 2.5 billion dollars to launch a platform for virtual reality and artificial intelligence (Dickey et al. 2016). Microsoft has announced a new software platform AIX to develop AI-powered characters for the game Minecraft. It will be a self-learning process for children.

 Identification of Actors: In this case, the actors are Microsoft, Minecraft game, money amount (2.5 billion dollars), platform for virtual reality and AI, AIX as well as the consumers (includes children)

Computing News 2

Categories of Actors: The digital, software, hardware, human, structural, cultural actors are Microsoft/Minecraft game, AIX, Systems, children/players, AI, machine culture respectively.      

Action and Impact of action: According to the case, Microsoft is using the Minecraft game as a platform to increase the experiment on artificial intelligence. Using a popular sandbox game the company can find a large audience to show the platform. The open and creative components of this game can be fruitful for AI experiment (Bond and Gasser 2014). Moreover, the video game can help children learn the complex nature of AI quickly easily. The amount of money shows the urgency of innovation for Microsoft. Therefore, the actors here can increase the goal of AI networks like reasoning, natural language processing, intelligent behavior for machines as well as the communication between machine and human actors (Bond and Gasser 2014).

In recent years, artificial intelligence has become a major interest for information technology. The primary goal is to increase the intelligent behavior of the machine. The rational behavior includes reasoning, knowledge, learning, perception as well as moving and manipulation of objects. Using the popular video game Minecraft children as well as other players can realize the impact of AI and its characteristics. Involving into something is the easiest way of learning (O’Neil 2014). This strategy of Microsoft will increase interested people as well as students to interact in the compound subject. With the open source license of the game, different communities can interact and experiment with the topic AI and AIX platform. The negative aspect of this situation is the game will addict the children, the target players as well as change their mindset for hobbies and increase health problems.

Big data is structured as well as unstructured data generation when some topic is seen from different perspectives (hidden patterns, marketing trends, customer view). The analysis leads to efficient ways of marketing, technology, competition as well as customer service (Sourav et al. 2015). The computing cases described in the essay generate big data necessary for information mining (Zhang and Huang 2014). 

Computing News 1: In the site hacking case in China, the data generation includes the security system condition of hospitals in China, the ethical issues in the ICT, the cultural condition in a part of China as well as the socio-economic structure of China.

Computing News 2: According to the second case of Microsoft approach to increase the Artificial Intelligence platform using sandbox game Minecraft includes the progress in AI platform, improved target players for the game, easy learning of AI, etc.

Morozov view: According to Morozov, data mining operation of government can lead to serious privacy threat for people (Lazer et al. 2014). The idea of all data securely stored on the internet is a utopian hypothesis. In the first computing case, the idea of security is in trouble as the mere update case leads to serious harm to hospital system and site. The Microsoft idea to increase the AI platform can lead more machine dependency as well as vulnerabilities in people.

Nicholas Carr view: According to Nicholas Carr, the use of internet and machine (includes computer, tab as well as a calculator) is obstructing human power of deep thinking. In this digital era, people are very dependent on the internet (Chen et al. 2014). In the first case, the inevitable dependency on the internet becomes the cause of system damage as well as the illegal download of confidential copies. In the second case, the progress in AI platform can enrich human knowledge. However, the strategy to launch the AI platform using the game can detach human from their early habits, hobbies as well as increase health risks.

Clay Shirky view: According to the surplus cognitive theory of Clay, Shirky technology changes the consumers into an associate. In the first computing case, the unknown downloader is a transformation from user to hacker, and the transformation leads ethical issues in ICT as well as harm to the system of the hospital. In the second case, Microsoft has a strategy for customer interaction for the AI platform. The interaction and comments can lead the players and user to transform into AI programmer or tester.

Conclusion

The essay includes the basis of active network theory stating that in micro as well as macro process every actor is dependent on some other actor and vice versa. The essay also describes two recent IT cases and argues on the impact on those cases taking different actors like hardware, software, social, cultural as well as human. Moreover, the two cases are also seen from different viewpoints like big data analysis, Morozov, Nicolas Carr, etc.

References

Alexander, P.M. and Silvis, E., 2014. Actor-network theory in information systems research. Information Research, 19(2).

Bond, A.H. and Gasser, L. eds., 2014. Readings in distributed artificial intelligence. Morgan Kaufmann.

Chen, M., Mao, S. and Liu, Y., 2014. Big data: A survey. Mobile Networks and Applications, 19(2), pp.171-209.

Dickey, M., Singh, S., Vega, A., Miller, R., Lardinois, F., Panzarino, M., Matney, L., Lardinois, F., Dickey, M. and Russell, J. (2016). TechCrunch. [online] TechCrunch. Available at: https://techcrunch.com [Accessed 17 Mar. 2016].

Farias, I. and Bender, T. eds., 2012. Urban assemblages: How actor-network theory changes urban studies. Routledge.

Khurana, S., 2015. Analyzing Website Hacking Tool and their Prevention Techniques.

Lazer, D., Kennedy, R., King, G. and Vespignani, A., 2014. The parable of Google Flu: traps in big data analysis. Science, 343(14 March).

O’Neil, M., 2014. Hacking Weber: legitimacy, critique, and trust in peer production. Information, Communication & Society, 17(7), pp.872-888.

Sourav, P.S., Anita, M. and Kumar, M.S., 2015. Performance Evaluation of Big Data by Applying Ant Colony Optimization Techniques. Journal of Computer Sciences and Applications, 3(6), pp.134-136.

Spectrum.ieee.org. (2016). IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News. [online] Available at: https://spectrum.ieee.org [Accessed 17 Mar. 2016].

Tomlinson, B., Blevis, E., Nardi, B., Patterson, D.J., Silberman, M. and Pan, Y., 2013. Collapse informatics and practice: Theory, method, and design.ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 20(4), p.24.

Zhang, J. and Huang, M.L., 2014. Density approach: a new model for BigData analysis and visualization. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience.