Paper short abstract:

Borrowing inspiration from Annemarie Mol’s empirical philosophy, this essay depicts the data center as an ongoing endeavor of heterogeneous actors. It aims to reveal how the multiple ontologies of the data center coordinate and clash with each other, together sustaining its form and social function.

Paper long abstract:

In the digital era, data has become one of those critical “hyperobjects” that are negligible in size but have enormous temporal and spatial extensions and can permeate every corner of the planet. A sheer volume of data is generated every day, flowing through devices and networks, producing huge economic profits and opportunities for both public and private sectors. In the global assemblage of digital flow, the data center is a social structure of critical importance, acting as the storage, fermentation, and pumping organ of the digital society. Here, one of our planet’s most precious resources is processed, allocated, and utilized. Consequently, data centers have captured the attention of many scholars, who have portrayed data centers as exploitative, even toxic infrastructures. Drawing inspiration from Annemarie Mol’s empirical philosophy, this essay aims to present data centers as an ongoing endeavor of complex actors instead of an inevitable end of technological development. Specifically, this essay will follow Annemarie Mol’s ontological multiplicity, presenting how different realities of data centers are enacted by various actors in practice and how these realities overlap, coordinate, and clash with each other. By looking at the historical development and current actor-network of data centers in China, this essay aims to unveil how different ideas and power structures are reflected, reified, and reproduced in the multiplicity of data centers and how seemingly recalcitrant realities work together to form a seamless web that sustains crucial social functions in daily life.