activities, from robot design to the domestication of animals, suddenly come into relief when revealed as touched by its logic.” – Sianne Ngai, The Cute [^6]
Caption: FOXACID, TOP SECRET/COMINT/NOFORN
Figure text: TOP SECRET//COMINT//NOFORN…opposite, like the gravitational blobbing of black-and-white on either side of the Technocracy Inc. logo (formerly the yin-yang minus the dots), a given target’s exterior calm increasingly tagged to interior tension and lack of resolve…
Cap…Operation Vula, quote stuffing, hydras, Vortex, “Bayesian flooding” and “unselling” Generalizing FaceCloak; exploit and asymmetry…
Fogging, Flooding, and Surfacing, Amplification, Inhibition, Wiping…
[^1]: Lyotard, Jean Francois. tr. Ian …
Edward Snowden
historical · 5 mentions across 3 readings
In this course
Snowden's 2013 NSA disclosures function as documentary evidence in the course readings for surveillance infrastructures that operate through metadata collection and signals intelligence—exposing the machinic logics underlying both state security apparatus and commercial data analytics. His revelations enable discussions of how tracking and targeting systems (whether deployed against individuals or populations) embed algorithmic reasoning into practices that predate digital computation, making surveillance a fundamental object of study in understanding contemporary cybernetics and power. The leaked materials ground theoretical arguments about the "cute" aesthetics and hidden tensions within systems of computational control that shape modern life.
Mentioned in 3 readings
Appears alongside
People mentioned in the same passages — sorted by co-occurrence weight.