Internet Daemons

Fenwick McKelvey is assistant professor of communication studies at Concordia University.

• Abbreviations and Technical TermsIntroduction1. The Devil We Know: Maxwell’s Demon, Cyborg Sciences, and Flow Control2. Possessing Infrastructure: Nonsynchronous Communication, IMPs, and Optimization3. IMPs, OLIVERs, and Gateways: Internetworking before the Internet4. Pandaemonium: The Internet as Daemons5. Suffering from Buffering? Affects of Flow Control6. The Disoptimized: The Ambiguous Tactics of the Pirate Bay7. A Crescendo of Online Interactive Debugging? Gamers, Publics and DaemonsConclusionAcknowledgmentsAppendix: Internet Measurement and MediatorsNotesBibliographyIndex

"Beneath social media, beneath search, Internet Daemons reveals another layer of algorithms: deeper, burrowed into information networks. Fenwick McKelvey is the best kind of intellectual spelunker, taking us deep into the infrastructure and shining his light on these obscure but vital mechanisms. What he has delivered is a precise and provocative rethinking of how to conceive of power in and among networks."-Tarleton Gillespie, author of Custodians of the Internet"Internet Daemons is an original and important contribution to the field of digital media studies. Fenwick McKelvey extensively maps and analyzes how daemons influence data exchanges across Internet infrastructures. This study insightfully demonstrates how daemons are transformative entities that enable particular ways of transferring information and connecting up communication, with significant social and political consequences."-Jennifer Gabrys, author of Program Earth