Infrastructural stress relief

This presentation puts forward the concept of "bot logic" as a response to what the researcher Deb Verhoeven calls "infrapuncture". "Infrapuncture" is a portmanteau word which conflates "infrastructure" and "acupuncture", referring to small-scale interventions that have a catalytic effect on the whole. Currently there is a growing interest in activist communities in bots as a tool to amplify voices. Simultaneously, the Oxford Internet Institute has initiated a years-long research phase into the political role of bots, focusing specifically on propaganda networks. Independent researchers are similarly participating in investigations regarding the spread of false information.

Across this landscape, a 'bot logic' is emerging, which refers to the situational effect of bots upon a socio-technical ecology and their potential to infiltrate and co-exist with server-side conditions. How can a parasitic logic be developed that both deflates the hegemonic infrastructure and inflates alternative structural interventions?"