Functional Specialization — Modular Construction — Object Orientation

“Functional Specialization <bar> Modular Construction <bar> Object Orientation” suggests a transformation in the design, construction, and organization of systems. Taken to the extreme, it asks how a given system might transform the ways we imagine the world to function as a structure to be designed—from global networks and the built environment to the social configuration of our communities and even our relationship to our identities and ourselves. Building on this transformation, the essay argues that our contemporary world is increasingly shaped by the programming design principal of object orientation, that is, a system of black-boxed computational structures capable of discrete forms of communication. This operational logic sits above existing systems and interfaces them with computation—a supplement to, rather than replacement for, our original dichotomy. This entry explores object orientation as the systems thinking of the present, exploring how it has transformed our understanding of the world under the informatics of domination.