It took its time to kill him. The Minotaur became intertwined with his phone, his laptop, his smart tv and his smartwatch and his smartfridge. These days it’s hard to buy a device that isn’t connected to the cloud. In every one of these dev…By manipulating a few numbers the Minotaur could make him feel popular or lonely, rich or poor. Theseus’ mother sent him a message asking if he was ok. The Minotaur allowed it through, warping the message and the response, leaving Theseus i…
Theseus
fictional · 3 mentions across 2 readings
In this course
Theseus appears here not as the mythic hero but as a contemporary subject ensnared by algorithmic systems—a figure whose autonomy is compromised by the distributed surveillance of connected devices and the Minotaur's capacity to manipulate his social reality. The readings use this mythic inversion (Theseus as victim rather than victor) to argue that our current computational infrastructures have inverted the classical narrative of heroic agency, replacing it with asymmetrical power relations where algorithmic entities control information flow and emotional feedback. This repurposing of mythology gestures toward how machine learning systems function as modernized labyrinthine traps, dissolving human autonomy not through direct containment but through pervasive, invisible mediation.
Background
Theseus was a divine hero in Greek mythology, famous for slaying the Minotaur. The myths surrounding Theseus, his journeys, exploits, and friends, have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages.
Wikipedia →Mentioned in 2 readings
Appears alongside
People mentioned in the same passages — sorted by co-occurrence weight.