In Defense of the ‘Helminthiasis’: A Technofeminist Reading of the 1988 Internet Worm

• In Event: Feminist Approaches to Technology, Internet and Apps

Abstract

On November 2, 1988 by Robert Morris, a graduate student in computer science at Cornell university unleashed upon an unsuspecting and unprepared public the first Internet worm. Initially a small experiment, the impact of the worm, was much more devastating than intended. This small program ultimately led machines across the country to crash and the accumulation of thousands of dollars in repair costs (Kehoe, 1995). Using technofeminist and postcolonial STS literature, this paper will demonstrate how RFC 1135, or “The Helminthiasis of the Internet” can be read as trace related to the development of Internet infrastructure standards and values. In all, this work argues that the negative connotation of the ‘worm’ is undeserved because it creates a power and ethical binary within the constructs of the Internet infrastructure resulting in a conception of ethics and values enforced legally and across space and time that favors Western values and norms.

Author

• Anna Loup, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication