What is digital about abstraction?

TL;DR

This paper explores abstraction in computing as both a technical principle and a socio-cultural force, shaping software, society, and power dynamics through historical and contemporary practices.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of abstraction as a socio-technical process influencing organizational, cultural, and economic aspects of computing.

Findings

Abstraction enables modularity and layering in software systems.

It acts as a locus of power affecting governance and control.

Abstraction shapes dependencies and societal structures around digital infrastructures.

Abstract

This chapter examines abstraction as a central principle of computing, not merely as a cognitive skill or epistemological category, but as a material and organizational practice that structures how software is built, used, and embedded in society. By tracing abstraction through historical developments in programming, operating systems, and networking, the text highlights its dual role in enabling modularity and layering while simultaneously shaping cultural, economic, and organizational forms. From open-source projects to platform capitalism and cloud infrastructures, abstraction emerges as both a technical device and a locus of power, producing dependencies and interdependencies that reconfigure labor, governance, and control in digital environments. The chapter argues for understanding abstraction as a socio-technical process whose effects extend far beyond efficiency or convenience, influencing how computing infrastructures evolve and how power relations crystallize around them.