#Control Society

[zurich-snows]

Based on a transcript from Taeyoon Choi’s class Poetics and Politics of Computation at the School for Poetic Computation, 2015

#control society #taeyoon choi #lecture slides #lecture notes #deleuze #foucault

[athousandrabbitholes]

Unlike relationships, objects can be thoroughly and reliably controlled. The logic of consumerism and commodity capitalism is thus based on responding to our unquenchable longing for resonance in the form of a promise of controllability, which channels the desires that guide our actions towards objects themselves. In effect, this corresponds to a process of fetishization.

Hartmut Rosa, The Uncontrollability of the World, 107

#Hartmut Rosa #The Uncontrollability of the World #Uncontrollability #Societies of Control #Fetishization #Marx #Social Theory #Control Society

[kenyatta]

The blueprint for modern digital computing was codesigned by Charles Babbage, a vocal champion for the concerns of the emerging industrial capitalist class who condemned organized workers and viewed democracy and capitalism as incompatible. Histories of Babbage diverge sharply in their emphasis. His influential theories on how “enterprising capitalists” could best subjugate workers are well documented in conventional labor scholarship. However, these are oddly absent from many mainstream accounts of his foundational contributions to digital computing, which he made with mathematician Ada Lovelace in the nineteenth century.1 Reading these histories together, we find that Babbage’s proto-Taylorist ideas on how to discipline workers are inextricably connected to the calculating engines he spent his life attempting to build.

From inception, the engines—“the principles on which all modern computing machines are based”2—were envisioned as tools for automating and disciplining labor. Their architectures directly encoded economist Adam Smith’s theories of labor division and borrowed core functionality from technologies of labor control already in use. The engines were themselves tools for labor control, automating and disciplining not manual but mental labor.3 Babbage didn’t invent the theories that shaped his engines, nor did Smith. They were prefigured on the plantation, developed first as technologies to control enslaved people. Issues alive in the present—like worker surveillance, workplace automation, and the computationally mediated restructuring of traditional employment as “gig work”—echo the way that computational thinking historically emerges as a mode of control during the “age of abolition,” in the early nineteenth century. Britain officially abolished West Indian slavery in 1833, and Babbage was very aware of the debate on abolition. He was also aware of the questions that were roiling the British elite as they sought alternatives to enslaved Black labor—particularly the question of how to control white industrial workers who persistently rebelled against industrialization, such that they could produce at the pace required to maintain the British empire. Both Babbage’s influential labor theories and his engines can be read as attempts to answer these questions—ones that, knowingly or not, rearticulated technologies of control developed on the plantation.

#Charles Babbage #control society #industrial control #business logic

[uncrossedrhyme]

Heidegger's Authentic Being-in-the-world: Dasein & Deception-Awareness, Toward Convivial Futurism

GLOSSARY Dasein: humans interacting with the world, and with each other; indeterminate, but aware Authenticity: the degree of alignment to and coherence with one’s beliefs; not wholly living in the present, past, or future, but looking back to one’s birth, before that to history, ahead to one’s inevitable death, and beyond to humanity’s future. Convivial: freedom realized in personal…

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#adam lehrer #alexander bard #American Behaviorism #anarchist #attentionalism #biohacking #burnout society #byung chul han #capitalism #chad cerebration #communism #conspiracy #continental philosophy #control society #culture industry #cyberpunk #deschooling #dystopia #epistemology #ernst junger #french philosophy #friedrich nietzsche #german philosophy #giantgio #homeschooling #ideology #ivan illich #john taylor gatto #libertarian #liquid modernity

[e-stranger]

Burroughs was a feminist!

Rub Out The World, drawing by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs.

William S. Burroughs tells us how we can scramble the control society through grammar in his essay The Electronic Revolution, from 1970.

delete the copula (is/are), i.e., disrupt fixed identities – YOU ARE WHAT YOU ARE NOT [Lacan]!

replace definite articles (the) with indefinite articles (a/an), i.e., avoid reification — THERE EXIST MULTIPLICITIES [Badiou]!

replace either/or with and, i.e., ignore the law of contradiction — JUXTAPOSE [Silliman]!

1. Copula

The IS OF IDENTITY. You are an animal. You are a body. Now whatever you may be you are not an “animal,” you are not a “body,” because these are verbal labels. The IS of identity always carries the assignment of permanent condition. To stay that way. All name calling presupposes the IS of identity. This concept is unnecessary in a hieroglyphic language like ancient Egyptian and in fact frequently omitted. No need to say the sun IS in the sky, sun in sky suffices. The verb TO BE can easily be omitted from any languages. . . . (“ER” 33)

2. Definite Articles → Indefinite Articles

THE DEFINITE ARTICLE THE. The contains the implication of one and only: THE God, THE universe, THE way, THE right, THE wrong, If there is another, then THAT universe, THAT way is no longer THE universe, THE way. The definite article THE will be deleted and the indefinite article A will take its place. (33-34)

3. Either/Or → And

THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF EITHER/OR. Right or wrong, physical or mental, true or false, the whole concept of or will be deleted from the language and replaced by juxtaposition, by AND. This is done to some extent in any pictorial language where two concepts stand literally side by side. (ibid.)

Via Burroughs on How to Escape the Society of Control by Sean Kohingarara Sturm, 2010.

#control society #Sean Kohingarara Sturm #william s. burroughs #the electronic revolution #scrambling language #feminism

[fandomsandfeminism]

On Saturday, in New York, a group of friends pulled into a strangers driveway to turn their car around. The homeowner came outside, shot at them, and killed one of the 20 year old women in the car.

Last Thursday, in Kansas City, a 16 year old boy ended up at the wrong address by mistake trying to pick up his younger siblings. He rang the doorbell. The homeowner shot him in the head. He is, miraculously, alive and recovering.

Yesterday, in Texas, a group of high school cheerleaders stopped at a grocery store on their way home. One of them opened the door to the wrong car by mistake, realized her mistake, and quickly retreated and found her friends car nearby. The man in the car followed her and shot at the group. 2 were shot. One remains hospitalized.

In less than a week- 3 people, doing normal, nonmalicious, nonthreatening, everyday things. Turning around in a driveway, ringing the wrong doorbell, going up to the wrong car by mistake. And with no escalation, no warning, it turns to gun fire.

It's a terrible intersection of easy access to firearms and an entitlement to use violence against others. All 3 of these recent incidents were so unprovoked and unjustifiable, and the core thread remains the same.

A man who felt entitled to use violence and had the means to do so with a firearm.

I don't even know what to say.

#gun control obviously #but even that feels like too little #we need gun control #but we also need I dunno some...something more #because what kind of society creates this #what kind of culture allows it #the entitlement to leap straight to deadly force before you even speak to a person #to shoot at a stranger through your front door or car window without warning #just what in fucking hell

[shittysawtraps]

when your friend says “i’m becoming the joker,” reply, “well, i’m becoming jigsaw” to one-up them. do not elaborate on what this means

#shitty saw traps #saw franchise #mod amanda #oh you’re gonna do fucked up shit because society has driven you crazy? #well I’M gonna do fucked up shit because I’m tired and done #your violence is rooted in a desire to shock while mine is rooted in a desire for connection #(even if that connection is through trauma) #you may have lost control. but I just gained it. and that’s scarier #anyway im sorry to hear that your shift sucked #(sorry if this post is too edgy)

[strawberrysamara]

"Kaidan Alenko is boring" WRONG. Kaidan Alenko is one of THEE characters of all time. He's Canadian, he's Schrodinger's man of colour, he's DOWN to fuck and still didn't manage to figure out that he's bisexual until his thirties, he killed a man as a teenager and almost caused a diplomatic meltdown bc of it, his tits are bigger than yours, he's constantly getting migraines, he has autism but doesn't know it AND he glows. What more could you want

#samara speaks #mass effect #kaidan alenko #now if you'll excuse me it's date night. i need to go fall down several floors through a fish tank and have him come pick me up. #also like. as much as he is under control in comparison to some of the other squadmates he's still got his personal problems 4 u 2 fix #it's just that his problem is that society demands that biotics be perfect to be accepted; otherwise they're seen as threats #part of his arc with shepard is (imo) learning to have more confidence in himself and his abilities and to listen more to his emotions

[waveoftheocean]

yet another vw wip for this week's wip wednesday bc i have zero (0) self control and so. so. so many thoughts abt them

#vashwood #trigun #trigun maximum #vash the stampede #nicolas d wolfwood #mine #wip #lmao ngl this looks like it could be done but it is not!!!! it is not :3c #please join me on my journey of creating more and more elaborate merch #where the setup and trying to vizualize how the pieces should fit make my head hurt 🤯 #(but yes this will be a charm and it has multiple parts and i really hope it comes out like i planned it to) #merch stuff #actually my caption is a lie i have SO much self control #because this much? this is me holding back #i want to draw SO MUCH of them i want to read fanfic i want to rewatch tristamp and finish the 98 anime and finish the manga #i wanna admire other ppl's fanart and cosplays and theory vids and edits and everything just everything. #but NO. i live in a capitalist society and i have to WORK. I HAVE DEADLINES 😭😭😭

[chasingfictions]

buffy the vampire slayer | 1x12 → 5x22

#btvsedit #my edit. #spuffygifs #slayerdaily #buffysource #usercande #usersez #userveronika #tuserjana #tvedit #buffysummeredit #it’s the way buffy is the one staring most intently at the master as though she can see what’s coming #it’s the way the other two staring at the master are jenny and angel who are the most steeped in doomedness #how the scoobies are looking at each other #how giles is just looking at buffy. and then he’s still looking at buffy again 4 years later #also thinking abt the transition from the school to the ruins of the tower #the controlled environment vs the revelation that society’s structures are flimsy and fabricated #and the school carries that specter too with its eventual explosion #SO MANY GHOSTS

[poppiesforthirteen]

i don't get people who don't like looms because "when two time lords love each other very much they send a formal application to the council to use a machine that is in their house" is so much funnier than a nuclear family

#it's also about the Themes #like if you loom a childe it skips all those developmental stages where it's 100% reliant on caretakers #tying into gallifreyan emotional neglect and children being forced to grow up too quickly #you can just Create More People there's absolutely no physicality required for it #time nobility is a society so deeply allergic to genuine attachment why would they allow for unpredictable biological processes #like pregnancy. why would they want all those hormones #population control - even less people to join their elite society. not to mention the eugenics #looms are a great meme but they're an even better plot device #i haven't read lungbarrow yet #looms #🥀

[athousandrabbitholes]

Our own everyday lives and actions seem to be increasingly beyond our own control, and not even the experts who appear to be the guardians of 'theoretical' controllability are capable of creating the impression of control through calculation. The expansion of our technological reach is not increasing our self-efficacy, but undermining it. We feel ourselves powerless or blameworthy in an unresponsive world.

Hartmut Rosa, The Uncontrollability of the World, 113

#Hartmut Rosa #The Uncontrollability of the World #Uncontrollability #Resonance #Social Theory #Societies of Control #Control Society

[chaoticcomposition]

been seeing more hobgoblins around and it made me really wanna design arjun, nepenthe's mentor and friend! the dumaran hobgoblins were given dark fur, pale eyes, and the ability to control the giant vermaloc wood spiders from lolth

edit: arjun's pronouns are he/him!

#dungeons and dragons #hobgoblin #barbarian #dnd #d&d #dnd oc art #drawerings #ocs #arjun gorvak #i guess she has some kind of obsession with changing the appearance of her followers #to better control them/ostracize them from society #exandria #dumaran

[marlynnofmany]

You know how in stories where the heroes save the world from some magical apocalypse, a lot of the time the general public has no idea? They just go about their lives afterward, not even realizing how close they came to disaster, much less that there's someone to thank for that?

Picture how those heroes feel.

That's how the programmers who stopped the Y2K bug most likely feel.

Thanks for saving us, folks. I just heard the song "Party Like It's 1999", and thought of you.

#Y2K #I was there Gandalf #and I didnt have the slightest idea that there had been a real danger #everyone was so worried beforehand #but the when the clocks rolled over to 2000 #and none of the computers controlling key points of society went haywire #everybody collectively shrugged and laughed #'lol whoops' #'guess there was nothing to worry about after all' #when in fact there very much was #and somehow they never got credit #for averting that particular apocalypse #at least we can talk about it now #hooray for the internet #a source of many things I would otherwise not know

[bananonbinary]

somewhat kicking a bees nest here, but hear me out-

"homemade and handcrafted goods should cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars" is why attaching a monetary value to esoteric concepts like "time" and "skill" (and, you know, "a human being") is a bad system.

now, before the pitchforks come out, i am not bitching because i want a handcrafted quilt for $20. i do recognize that it would be unbelievably unfair to the quilter. but like...doesn't that sound obscene? that we live in a system where things that used to be pretty mundane are now only available to the upper class, or the creator just fucking dies? where in order for someone to make anything artistic, they need to be independently wealthy or ONLY cater to wealthy people?

again, i am not suggesting that artists should sell me their shit at a horrific loss. im not really suggesting any solution at all here, we're between a bit of a rock and a hard place. but it feels really inherently fucked up to me that the only options are "Artists taken advantage of" and "only rich people get art."

anyways, UBI huh

#like i see these arguments about rising videogame and movie and tv costs as well #and like. yes! i do think those artists deserve a living wage! #but also its grotesque that that means only rich people have access to art #a ubi wouldnt solve EVERYTHING but it sure would make literally everything easier you know? #i hate the idea of art as career #not because i dont think its important #but because i feel like its TOO important to attach to that fucking carrot/stick you know? #whoever controls the money can control the art and that's real stupid. even if it IS how its always been. #but taking it further than that. i guess i hate 'career' meaning 'reason you get to live' in the FIRST place #so i dont hate artists that make it their career. that's fine. #but i think a society that forces you to attach a dollar value to everything you care about in order to live is very sick

[tygerland]

4 April 1980: Ian Curtis on stage with Joy Division at the Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, London. Photography: Peter Anderson.

#1980s #transmission #dark #rock #alternative #gothic #80s #music #singer #control #society #chaos #post punk #joy division #concert #punk #ian curtis #history #retro #new order #warsaw #peter hook #bernard sumner #peter anderson #stephen morris #culture #👽