User:Amy Suo Wu/Physical Media

Introduction of 'Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization' by Alexander Galloway

Properties and methods of protocols:

1. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

• Transport layer (only responsible for making sure everything arrives; data travels to correct destination)
• Uses the three way handshake
• Creates an imaginary circuit between sender and receiver
• Robust quality
• Conservative and liberal. Accepts everything, but if it's corrupt will immediately delete.

+ Telephone call ("opening and closing sentences to establish conversation") + Offline meetings (would be nice if entire conversation would end with one miscommunication) + Make the circuit visible by throwing wool or rope of some sort.

2. IP (Internet Protocol)

• Partner of TCP (together they make a protocol suite)
• As the engine in the car, but doesn't know how to steer.
• Responsible for routing and fragmentation

ROUTING

• Flexible routing system called hopping, doesn't know final destination, but knows next nearest
• Makes datagram containing "expiring date"

FRAGMENTATION

• Gets disintegrated into small packages (called datagrams) which can be send over the network.
• Packages are then reassembled to make a whole file again
• Get's refragmentated to fit the network size (smaller "roads" will only allow smaller packages)

+ Chinese whisper (program a hub to change data slightly) + fragmentation reminds of of IKEA + Datagram looking where to go

3. TCP/IP

• Fascilitates peer to peer communication
• Distributed technology i.e. Rhizome model
• Universal language
• Robust flexible, strong
• Open to broad variety of computers
• Result of the action of autonomous agents

4. DNS (domain name system)

• Translator from names to numeral (because computers read numbers more easily and humans read words better)
• Predecessor was called hosts.txt, and was called namespace (centralized system)
• DNS is decentralized database.
• Inverted tree like structure (hieracy)
• Decentralized because one layer can only talk to the next layer and not deeper layers.

+ current political system (politicians trying to communicate to lower levels) + institution + cross reference (for one document you need another document)

Question: where does DNS live?