PDF LINKS

I. SURVEILLANCE, POWER, AND SOCIETY

"Body, Mind, and Credit Card" from The Electronic Eye by David Lyon (1994)

It hasn't always been this way-- the modern systems which keep tabs on all of us constantly are recent developments and ones which were debated at the time of their implementation and can still be debated.

"Welcome to the Society of Control: The Simulation of Surveillance Revisited" by Willian Bogard (2006)

A definitive introduction to the concept of societies of control, a theory which addresses the way surveillance, power, and control have changed from Foucault's theory of the discipline society since the beginning of the information age and, especially, the rise of the internet. Illuminating...

"Privacy Without Persons: A Buddhist Critique of Surveillance Capitalism" by Bryce Goodman (2022)

Since Buddhist ethics don't value a sense of self or privacy, a Buddhist critique of surveillance capitalism cannot focus on the privacy violations of Google or Amazon. Instead, Goodman focuses on how surveillance capitalism veils the truth and ensnares people within the toxic cycle of desire and dissatisfaction.

"Biometric Borders: Governing Mobility in the War on Terror" by Louise Amoore (2006)

A straightforward but very insightful look at the evolution of border technology after 9/11 and how biometrics are used: discusses "trusted traveler" programs, travel bans, and the nature of a border.

"Panopticism" from Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault (1975)

Explains Foucault's application of Bentham's panopticon to society as a whole.

"The Viewer Society: Michel Foucault's Panopticon Revisited" by Thomas Mathiesen (1997)

Mathiesen proposes his concept of the synopticon-- which, rather than the few watching the many, refers to the many watching the few-- as an addendum to Foucault's theory and patching what he considers the strange overlooking of television and mass media.

II. AI, TECH, AND DATA

"Can Humanity Survive AI?" by Garrison Lovely for Jacobin Magazine (2024)

A straightforward look at the evolution of recent AI development (as of 2024) and an explaination of the difference between AI ethics proponents and AI safety proponents and how both groups use their perspectives to their advantage.

"The Big Other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization" by Shoshanna Zuboff (2015)

As the foundation on which Zuboff's 2018 book Surveillance Capitalism sits, "The Big Other" unpacks two articles by Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, to see how digitial surveillance and the creation of "big data" affect humanity and society and everything in between.

"Supernormal: How the Internet is Changing Our Memories and Our Minds" by Adrian Ward (2013)

Discusses the idea of a transactive memory, where rather than retaining information, a person retains knowledge of where to find that information. Formerly, that would be a mother, a pastor, a teacher, a library-- now, it's Google.

"Big Tech Is Exploiting the Mental Health Crisis to Monetize Your Data" from Jacobin Magazine (2024)

A investigative news article on basically exactly what it says on the tin.

III. RACE, INDIGENEITY, AND COLONIZATION

"Unknowable: Against an Indigenous Anarchist Theory" by Klee Benally/Ya’iishjááshch’ilí (2021)

In "Unknowable," Benally addresses the history of anarchism and its similiarities and, in the end, irreconcilible dissimilarities with indigeneity and decolonization movements in a piece both beautiful to read and urgently pointed.

here

"Under a Wild Rice Moon" by Winona LaDuke from The Winona LaDuke Reader, originally published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune (1999)

When I started reading LaDuke's work, I was a little put off by how plain her writing is-- however, she packs an incredible amount of significance into each article in the

. She doesn't need purple prose. In this article, she unpacks the decline of Minnesota's Native

(wild rice) economy as paddy ricers in California dominate the market.

IV. FICTION, ANALYSIS, AND CRITICISM

"E Unibus Pluram: Television and US Fiction" by David Foster Wallace

Despite television no longer being the prevailing force in mass media, David Foster Wallace's analysis of additudes toward it, its addictive nature, and its advertising-based tactics, all of which are mallowed in the late 90s post-ironic deadened acceptance that have morphed into our current apathetic conditions, stay very relevant. And he's always fun to read.

"The Hospitable Aesthetics of Alison Bechdel" by Vanessa Lauber in The Comics of Alison Bechdel: from the Outside In (2019)

Alison Bechdel's work is so compelling partially because it, very organically, invites the reader into its story. Despite the often private content of her comics, from the family dramas of

to the sex and gossip of

, the reader never feels voyeuristic-- their viewing is invited. Lauber examines how and why in this essay.

Notes on the Final Cut of Disco Elysium from Robert Kurvitz (2020)

(webpage, not a PDF file)

A bit of backstory for the creation of ZA/UM's masterwork-- the foundation for what I think is a startlingly tragic story of the crumbling of an artist's collective.

A SMALL PDF LIBRARY