Cutting Code

Adrian Mackenzie researches and teaches in the Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University. He has degrees in science and philosophy, and received his Ph.D in philosophy from Sydney University. In addition to professional experience as a software developer, he is author of Transductions: Bodies and Machines at Speed (2002), and numerous scholarly articles.

• Introduction: Softwarily – Opening Code: Expression and Execution in Software – Algorithms: Sequence and Convolution – Kernel: Code in Time and Space – Java: Practical Virtuality – "Pits" and "Traders": Infrastructures in Software – Extreme Programming: Code as Prototype for Software – Conclusion – Notes – References – Index.

"«Cutting Code» is a major study of code as a site for constructing, negotiating, and transforming social relations. Knowledgeable, comprehensive, and insightful, «Cutting Code» is an essential text for anyone interested in how software achieves agency and consequently how it organizes the behaviors of both machines and humans. As soon as I finished this book, I turned it over and began reading it a second time; its deep clarity and compelling power demanded nothing less."N. Katherine Hayles, John Charles Hillis Professor of Literature, University of California, Los Angeles and Author of «My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts»