ABSTRACT
Reflecting on the anti-trust case against Microsoft Corporation’s popular Windows operating system, Bruno Latour exclaims that ‘we are no longer in the modern world’ (Latour, 2003, p. 37). He argues that the technological complexities behind this case were so overwhelming that ‘even the computer, that absolute icon of control and calculation, cannot be defined impartially in front of judges without generating fistfights in the courtroom’ (ibid.). It is clear that, for Latour, modernity stands for ‘control and calculation’. Why are control and calculation central to the idea of modernity? Because through calculation modern subjects can understand the risks that surround them and take the necessary actions to neutralize-that is, exercise control over-them. In other words, the dream of the modern subject is the achievement of complete control of her surroundings.
