Living in the Machine: The Cloud as Hyperobject

Brian Gaines, Clemson University

The Cloud, beginning as an innocuous diagram connecting ideas, thoughts, and concepts has eventually given way to a quite literal physical infrastructure that global computation relies upon. Because of the interchangeability of computation between the metaphoric and actual regarding the cloud is evident, an apparent argument for Morton’s concept of the Hyperobject becomes obvious. The cloud, as a Hyperobject, subsumes our social, economic, and environment in both digital and corporeal realities in ways we have yet to understand, the argument for a deep examination of the ethics and stewardship of the Cloud is paramount.