"Network culture is a rather peculiar phase in our modern technical civilization, as it seems to be a combination of high technology and a fascination with such seemingly simple life forms as insects. We continuously make sense of emerging media and technology through references and metaphors borrowed from the biological world: viruses, worms, swarms, and other similar eclectic ideas that suggest a complex view of scientific culture.

"What this book offers is an extensive and systematic take on this conflation of biology and technology; it shows how often modern culture has turned to animals and such simple life forms as insects to understand a radically non-human way of seeing the world. Imagine how the world looks and feels like to an animal who does not share our two-footed, two-handed, two-eyed world view. Such ideas fascinated a lot of early pioneers in the 19th and 20th century, from artists to scientists.

"More recently, so many network scientists and designers turned to insects as well: thinking about software, network architectures, and forms of organisation through ideas that they borrowed from entomology. What I do in this book is offer a thorough look at such "border crossings" between sciences and artistic appropriations of such ideas.

"When we approach contemporary digital economy, we need complex cultural historical perspectives to thoroughly understand its contexts, historical development, as well as the implications to our worldview."

"It's a great honour to be in the same series as leading cultural theorists of our posthuman and technological age, such as Michel Serres, Donna Haraway and Isabelle Stengers."