I R O N M A N 3 & P A C I F I C R I M

Paul Baran: the move to a distributed network that depends on packet switching (“On
Distributed Communications” (1964)) in reaction to potential nuclear strike. Other theorists working: Leonard Kleinrock (MIT) and Donald Davies (England)
First use in 1969 (ARPANET). Publically unveiled in 1972; not coincidently, the year that ARPA added the “D” to become DARPA.
The more public and slightly more popular dissemination of the Internet into the 80s
(more common hardware (computers cheaper, moving into the homes), shifting some of the use to a (still relatively small + high machine-knowledgeable number of civilian hobbyists.
Centralized Distributed
Key thinkers: J. C. R.
Licklider (“Man-
Computer Symbiosis”
(1960)); Norbert Weiner &
Claude Shannon (Macy
Conferences (1946-1953))

The military Internet (and computers) as De Landa (War
in the Age of Intelligent Machines) & Deleuze and
Guattari’s “machinic phylum”: “processes in which a group of previously disconnected elements suddenly reaches a critical point at which they begin to ‘cooperate’ to form a higher level entity” (De Landa, 7)
Deleuze and Guattari: “materiality, natural or artificial and both simultaneously; it is matter in movement, in flux, in variation” (ATP, 409); a “constellation of singularities, which converge, and make the operations converge,
upon one or several assignable traits of expression”
(ATP, 406, italics authors’).
The Internet became a more prevalent tool by which to generate and organize this military machinic phylum.

The late 80s Internet: FTP and BBS systems; lawless; a balance of power – for a time, the civilian was the super-user (ahead of the other ingrained military & corporate infrastructures).
Civilians at the forefront of next wave of innovations in home computing
In all three instances, the hacker is an ethical (humanist) superuser in direct opposition to another force (military machinic phyllum); as an outsider, for De Landa, the hacker is especially important because outside the military machinic phylum: “the military and corporations...are not in the business of giving people total control over computers”
Hacking as a form of resistance; the romantic union between; using the Internet (specifically) to enhance (not just computer hardware); much like Haraway’s cyborg

While Enemy of the State, Swordfish and The Core ultimately showcase the civilian hacker resisting/overcoming the military Internet, recent popular films, this urge to remilitarize the Internet has manifested in
Iron Man and Pacific Rim, more specific the “man-in-the-middle” soldier.
Not a new idea: Shannon and Weiner was discussing at the Macy
Conferences; Both N. Katherine Hayles (Ch. 3, How We Became
Posthuman) and De Landa discuss the concept.
Iron Man 3 and Pacific Rim are examples of the Future Combat System
(FCS), which Roderick outlines in “Putting the Post-Human in the
Loop.” a cybernetic system in which the soldier is a “man-in-themiddle,” melded to a series of computers, giving him/her access to, via immersion in “mixed reality....[of] information-rich environments”
(Roderick, 305). Cancelled in 2009; American Army continuing under
Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization
(http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12763).

Tony Stark on the surface, appears to be De
Landa’s heroic, civilian hacker. The first
Iron Man is about his character's turn from a corporate weapon’s dealer to a civilian super hero; staunchly against his company’s products being used for military purposes.
Yet, Stark has great wealth and can afford the time and energy to “tinker” (Candra
Gill, PCA/ACA 2013); more, doesn’t identify himself as a hacker
Instead he is literally constructed as manin-the-middle soldier.
Reinforced by repeated shots of him inside his suit, with various Internet-enhanced
HUDs (right); this type of humantechnological solider/hacker within the film is a far too simplified posthuman; clear divisions between technology and human elements (the two do not meld).

Iron Man’s relationship with Iron
Patriot (formerly War Machine) is more dangerous.
They work closely together; Iron Patriot is a Iron Man clone, repurposed for military use; rebranding in IM3 as more of a friendly brand, repainted with American flag (top). Actual
Man-in –the-middle soldier.
Iron Patriot: simply flies around in the world, into whatever countries and interrogates (bottom picture).
The two work together to conquer
bad guys at end. Talk and banter throughout; close, friendly.
Iron Man still has obvious and strong military ties.

Tony Stark creates his own network of other Iron Men; fights then in combination with Iron Patriot (using the Internet for remilitarized purpose).
The film is encouraging a heroic (and necessary?) military machinic phylum. Such a phylum is not a tool for diplomacy, but only for conflict and violence. Iron Man 3:
Encourages a too-simple militarized Internet that still relies on nationalistic boundaries (America Vs...); such a militarization is, frankly “awesome” and “cool,” but more importantly, necessary for maintaining (producing) a safe
America.
Technology is therefore an external weapon to be wielded, not a symbiotic extension (as per hacker ethics; far from De
Landa’s heroic hacker).

Compared to Iron Man, no longer just one “man in the middle”; cannot pilot alone. Complex biological/technological networks – not simply stepping into armour.
Dependant on “drifting” or “neural handshake” “Handshake” a key word – in computer science describes how one device (and its microprocessor) talks to and acknowledges another deviceReflective of a machinic audience’s Internet use (multi-user, immersive).
More “healthy” than Iron Man films
(much closer to Avatar’s treatment of the Internet: a messy biological/technological hybrid; less clear divisions)
Symbiotic with machine; when it gets hurt, pilot gets hurt; also, can’t just throw two pilots together - requires
“intimate” Internet.

Positivity due to change in enemy: Pacific Rim is similar to The Core in that the adversary is Nature, though a man-made mutation of
Nature. Like The Core (and
The Matrix Revolutions and
The Matrix Reloaded), beyond Nationalism (unlike
Iron Man 3). Pacific Rim has all humans bonding together with machines in cooperation; any human apocalypse is a machine apocalypse.

Yet, the technology is justified as a “war” technology (don’t use Jaegers to build or...). As commander Stacker Pentecost (Idris Alba) says, humans are in the “last days of war.” The “DARPA based” Jaegers are a combat weapon to win that war and the pilots are soldiers – they are hardware to be deployed , under military orders.
Much like Iron Man 3, Pacific Rim showcases the repurposed civilian;
Raleigh Becket, after leaving the military after his brother’s death, is brought back from civilian work to become a soldier again.
While more posthuman-positive than Iron Man 3, still treating the
Internet as weapon. In fact the “intimate” Internet of user-user – machine that pilots the Jaegers is still one piece of hardware to deploy among many; the Internet-enabled user is still just one part of a larger military machinic phylum. Like Iron Man 3, this militarizing of the
Internet is necessary for the safety of the larger population. There is no resistance from the outside hacker, only “good” Internet-enabled soldiers.

Real world example: Perlroth’s New York Times article “Luring Young Web Warriors” – the recruiting of hackers into the military assemblage and military machinic phylum as part of nationalistic army of cybersoldiers. The hacker re-purposed. Cyberarmies as defense and offense against other countries.
The shift towards unmanned drone warfare in both attacks and counterinsurgent measures.
Solutions
A constant awareness of military use of hardware and software, as part of military and civilian life; we must be critical and vocal about surveillance and repurposing of the
Internet’s physical and virtual infrastructures of the Internet in order to create/maintain the checks and balances of empowered civilian users.
An increase in mesh networks; smaller peer-to-peer networks where users use their own hardware (routers, servers, cables) as a way of creating an Internet outside of the one provided by ISPs. Turning away from the overreliance on a centralized Internet.
“Creative Hacking” classes like Creative Writing classes (both engineering and software); making computer education less specialized (teach HTML like you teach handwriting)

Aaron Tucker
Ryerson University
Toronto, ON, Canada aarontucker.ca
atucker@ryerson.ca
Interfacing with the
Internet in Popular
Cinema will be out with Palgrave
Macmillan in July
2014.

 Moshovitus, Ryan, De Landa (WAIM), Deirdre Byrne;
Perlroth’s New York Times article “Luring Young Web
Warriors”; Tubes (Blume); J. C. R. Licklider (“Man-
Computer Symbiosis” (1960)); Hayles (Posthuman);
Haraway; Bruce Stirling The Hacker Crackdown (1992);
Clifford Stoll The Cuckoo’s Egg (1989); Steven Levy
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (1984); deleuze and Guattarri (ATP);


Roderick outlines in “Putting the Post-Human in the
Loop.”
(http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releasei
d=12763).

War Games
Sneakers
The Net
Hackers
Pacific Rim
Iron Man 3
Iron Man
The Core
The three matrix movies
Swordfish
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