Trevor Paglen’s How to See Like a Machine, published by Verso, examines the visual epistemologies of computer vision and generative AI in contemporary surveillance culture. Rather than interpreting what these technologies represent, Paglen investigates their operational mechanisms and material origins, tracing how algorithmic seeing shapes perception across domains including military psyops, UFO documentation, magic, and propaganda. The work situates technological vision within human practices and ideologies, arguing that synthetic image-worlds and automated monitoring systems are stranger and more culturally embedded than typically assumed. Relevant to dark alternative thought through its critical interrogation of technological mediation, control systems, and the collapse of distinctions between real and simulated experience—themes aligned with hauntology and post-capitalist critique.
Original article published on Verso Books — AI-generated summary.
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