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Title: Introduction: Bot Logic Slug: 01-s4-introduction Date: 2020-11-01 12:00 Summary: Bots as computational infrapunctures.
Infrapuncture is a helpful term at a time when there is a lot of discussion around the political roles [perhaps be more specific, e.g. their undue influence in elections] of automated agents [maybe just call it bots?] in communication platforms. Making a bot can be a way to probe and understand potential forms of interventions, create new imaginaries or deflate existing hegemonic structures.
However, a bot always relies on the technical restrictions and possibilities of interaction defined by the infrastructure. In order to run a bot, a technical understanding of this infrastructure is therefore required. The API (Application Programming Interface) is an important entry point here. This technical framework provides a programming interface to communicate with a system. The API can be understood as a door protocol that is designed by the owner of an infrastructure, which eventually defines the technical imaginary of a platform. (We dive a bit deeper into API's in Section 6, click here to go there directly.)
Before launching a bot into a digital environment, the bot maker does not only need to find a technical entry point, but also a social one. Writing a bot does not only imply technical knowledge about an API of a platform, [<- this part of teh sentence can be delted because repetivive] it also implies a thorough understanding of what determines the possibilities of interaction and the social norms established within a social environment.
By introducing [what we call - claim your term!] bot logic, the aim of this section is to highlight the sociality that shapes (or is shaped by) bots.