Using anything that works

In the Wau-Pengo debate Pengo argued that the difference between intelligence and commercial enterprise was not that great. The story of the San Francisco Moscow Teleport shows in hindsight that both intelligence and community networks (Glasnet), as well as successful commercial activity (Golden Telecom), was its offspring.

A story like this makes me realise that as an actor and as a layperson, I just use what is in front of me, not realizing in which grand scenarios I play a role. The grand scenarios are hard to unravel and also, given Rop's account of the SFMT as 'a governments monitored border of computer data', it does not matter as long as the 'stuff' in front of me works. This 'thinking as actor' I assume is largely responsible for the way we accept technologies we did not know of before, and of which we do not know the way they operate, and which political and economic structures are involved. This thinking process of the actor is influenced by processes of trustworthiness, technological identities and by social interfaces in communication processes in which natural, mediated and witnessed presence all contribute. In chapter 5 I will elaborate on the 'thinking actor', it seems to be crucial for the kind of mediated and witnessed presences we accept.

CN