In February 2024 I delivered the keynote address at the DHU8 symposium, the eighth annual digital humanities conference sponsored by seven of Utah's largest universities. Now, well over a year later, I am finally sharing a lightly edited version of my talk. There's a simple reason for the long delay: in my talk I preview… Continue reading The Poetics and Power of Small Language Models
Tag: surveillance
Speculative Surveillance with Ring™ Log
Over the weekend I launched Ring™ Log, which is simultaneously a critique of surveillance culture and a parody of machine vision in suburbia. In the interactive artist statement I call Ring™ Log an experiment in speculative surveillance. "Speculative" in this context means what if? What if Amazon's Ring™ doorbell cams began integrating AI-powered object detection… Continue reading Speculative Surveillance with Ring™ Log
Fugitives and Detainees in American Social Life
Two years ago in Tracking the Fugitive I predicted that one of the dominant symbolic figures of the 21st century will be the fugitive. In film, literature, music, art, video games--in all these arenas, the fugitive will play a central role. And the reason, I suggested, is because there is no room anymore for fugitives… Continue reading Fugitives and Detainees in American Social Life
Don’t Hug that Tar Baby
It's been widely reported (and not just on the Daily Show) that new Presidential Press Secretary Tony Snow used the racist term "tar baby" in his first televised press briefing. Responding to a question about the NSA's secret wiretapping program, Snow answered: I am not going to stand up here and presume to declassify any… Continue reading Don’t Hug that Tar Baby
Total Information Awareness, Reprise
A few more thoughts on the massive NSA database of every domestic phone call, ever, in the United States... The database actualizes what was once only theory: DARPA's defunct Total Information Awareness project, which sought to "counter asymmetric threats [i.e. terrorism] by achieving total information awareness." Awareness of everything, godlike omniscience. Is this the only… Continue reading Total Information Awareness, Reprise
Can You Hear Me Now: The NSA, Me, and Papa John’s
The big surprise in today's USA Today story about the NSA building a staggering database of every single domestic phone call in the United States is not that such a database exists, but that the NSA waited until after 9/11 to begin building it. I think we had always assumed that the government was already… Continue reading Can You Hear Me Now: The NSA, Me, and Papa John’s
The sky is falling, but my phones are tapped, so I’m okay and you are too
I caught snippets of the Diane Rehm Show today, and there was a panel of experts discussing the domestic war on terror. There's the predictable apologist for the Bush administration, spouting the standard refrain that because there's been no terror attack on the U.S. since 9/11, all that illegal wiretapping and surveillance and profiling and… Continue reading The sky is falling, but my phones are tapped, so I’m okay and you are too
MTO Database from Amazon
I'll take a break from my travel blogging to mention Applefritter's astonishing article Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists. Individuals' public Amazon "wishlists" are, collectively, essentially a gigantic aggregate of data, waiting to be mined, and in this post, Tom Owad details how he used the wishlists to track the reading preferences of… Continue reading MTO Database from Amazon
I’m sorry. 9/11? I’m responsible. It was me, I did it.
In his press conference this morning, President Bush was asked about the New York Times' recent revelation that the NSA was operating a covert surveillance program that monitored hundreds of Americans' phone calls and emails without any court supervision or warrants. Bush responded: My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to… Continue reading I’m sorry. 9/11? I’m responsible. It was me, I did it.
Baby’s First ATM
So yesterday my wife, son, and I ventured for the first time into Kids-R-Us, home of the well-behaved toddler, destination of choice for the stark raving mad parent. Our visit deserves a separate post of its own (suffice it to say that it ended with the purchase of 100 plastic balls, each the size of… Continue reading Baby’s First ATM