Source Code

While reading N. Katherine Hayles's essay entitled "My Mother Was a Computer," I could not help but closely consider her discussion of codes in relation to Derrida, and the ways in which the form of communication exceeds writing and speech. It made me think of the movie Source Code, where Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of another man, attempting to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. The source code allows him to relive the last eight minutes of the man's life on the train, giving Stevens the opportunities he needs to gather vital information that will aid him in his discovery of who the bomber truly is.

Considering Hayles's essay, the first aspect of distinguishing code from speech and writing is "the fact that code is addressed both to humans and intelligent machines. A further distinction is implied when we note that computers, although capable of performing diverse and complicated tasks, have at the base level of machine language only two symbols and a small number of logical operations with which to work" (41). In other words, codes are addressed to humans and intelligent machines, ie. computers, and in relation to Source Code, such characteristics are illustrated. The devices and equipment used in order for the source code to function properly use code to interact with each individual apparatus themselves and to the others. Furthermore, through these codes, they are able to function properly and "address" humans as as well, allowing them to use these devices to perform the intended tasks. The codes utilized are simple by nature, yet they perform complicated tasks that even Stevens has difficulty comprehending at first.

Hayles further explains that for code, "the assumption that the sign is arbitrary must be qualified by material constraints that limit the ranges within which signs can operate meaningfully and acquire significance...these qualifications are part of a larger picture that tie code more intimately to material conditions..." (43). This means that there are actual constraints when it comes to such an arbitrary sign within coding, and it is within these constraints and limits that meaning and significance emerge. It relates to "a larger picture," which, in turn, gives code a closer and more personal understanding to the outside conditions. Within Source Code, Stevens is only allowed to relive the last eight minutes of the man's life in whose body he now inhabits, and his intended task/mission is to find the person behind the bombing. Even if he fails or completely goes off course from his mission, the clock is ticking in the actual world, moving forward, and Stevens will just be sent back to relive those eight minutes once more until he retrieves the vital information. During those eight minutes in the source code as well as during the time he is able to talk with those controlling it, he is limited in what he is able to accomplish, yet certain arbitrary signs and bits of information emerge that allow him to see the larger picture, pertaining to the task he is trying to accomplish as well as his own life itself.

Captain Colter Stevens is not able to make an error during his mission, and if he does, then the source code sends him back in to relive those eight minutes again until he gets it right. This in itself also pertains to Hayles's words on codes, for "all...tasks are built ultimately on a base of binary code and logic gates that are intolerant to error" (48). While the computers and various devices use binary code to operate the source code, Stevens must use his own logic in order to work his way through those eight minutes to acquire the information he seeks. He must think and act in terms of the source code being "intolerant to error" because if he fails, then another explosion will occur; for the sake of many lives, the source code is intolerant to error, including his own.