Data Serfdom in the Modern Age

Data Serfdom in the Modern Age:Data Serfdom in the Modern Age:Creating a Neo-Feudal Order Creating a Neo-Feudal Order Jeremy Antley -- peasantmuse.comJeremy Antley -- peasantmuse.com

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i.r. Shipmaster Lanai.r. Shipmaster Lana

✦ Jeremy King, “Jeremy King, “The Nationalization of East Central Europe: Ethnicism, Ethnicity, and Beyond”✦ 1879 Statue, built in Budejovice 1879 Statue, built in Budejovice (slavic/germanic language border)(slavic/germanic language border)✦ 1917 became Czech symbol, 1942 Nazi 1917 became Czech symbol, 1942 Nazi symbol, taken down by Communists and symbol, taken down by Communists and returned in 1989returned in 1989

✦ How did so many interpretations of one man's life come to the fore so often?

✦Interpretation of the Data Self.

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(actually it’s Pushkin)(actually it’s Pushkin)

And on the pedestal these words appear:"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains.

- Percy Byssey Shelley, 1818

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Depiction of Ancient Data Self.Depiction of Ancient Data Self.

Note the lack of data about Ozy.Note the lack of data about Ozy.

The Documentary Drive and the creation of the modern Data Self

- Hinged on getting people to accept asynchronicity of Textual Dualism

- Extension of the rational, enlightenment quest to know reality

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No longer just a data self issue, No longer just a data self issue, but but

also a data serf issue.also a data serf issue.@jsantley @jsantley

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First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data Lord. [Most appealing]Lord. [Most appealing]

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Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a reality you didn’t know existed. Verisimilitude is reality you didn’t know existed. Verisimilitude is revealed through the data self. [Most sustaining]revealed through the data self. [Most sustaining]

Dual Aspects of Data Serfdom,Dual Aspects of Data Serfdom,or why we toil for the Data Lordsor why we toil for the Data Lords

“But while we wait for a standard format, an open API, or really any semblance of symbiosis in this industry, I think it’s important to remember that my data is my data. It doesn’t belong to a bracelet, or an app, or a company. While we wait for these services to evolve, we shouldn’t have to wait to access the data that’s tracked about our bodies.” (emphasis mine)

- Paul Miller, Body Request: give me back my Fitness Data

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First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data Lord. [Most appealing]Lord. [Most appealing]

@jsantley @jsantley #b2#b2

Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a reality you didn’t know existed. Verisimilitude is reality you didn’t know existed. Verisimilitude is revealed through the data self. [Most sustaining]revealed through the data self. [Most sustaining]

Dual Aspects of Data Serfdom,Dual Aspects of Data Serfdom,or why we toil for the Data Lordsor why we toil for the Data Lords

Bingo.Bingo.

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"Stacks. In 2012 it made less and less sense to talk about "the Internet," "the PC business," "telephones," "Silicon Valley," or "the media," and much more sense to just study Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. These big five American vertically organized silos are re-making the world in their image."

- Bruce Sterling

"Your technology will work perfectly within the silo and with an individual stacks's (temporary) allies. But it will be perfectly broken at the interfaces between itself and its competitors."

- Alexis Madrigal

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QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

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This shift, from a book of faces to an indexed catalogue of varying living and non-living objects, means Facebook can update me on things as well as people...It’s a total deconstruction of my augmented life.

- David Banks, First Impressions of Graph Search

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Taken from Taken from actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.comactualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com

Why does the data self, much less Why does the data self, much less data serfdom, remain so appealing?data serfdom, remain so appealing?

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Social media systematically efface the distinctions between forms of attention, positing it as uniformly positive and thus universally desirable. They do a poor job of allowing us to calibrate our exposure, which is always theoretically infinite despite whatever temporary barrier privacy settings erect. Their entire logic militates against it.

That sort of attention constitutes us as a particular kind of sharing subject, confirming that we are “being ourselves” when we produce data, validating the primacy of documents over immediate lived experience. (emphasis mine)

- Rob Horning, Hi Haters!@jsantley @jsantley #b2#b2

First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data Lord. [Most appealing]Lord. [Most appealing]

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Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a reality you didn’t know existed. Verisimilitude is reality you didn’t know existed. Verisimilitude is revealed through the data self. [Most sustaining]revealed through the data self. [Most sustaining]

Dual Aspects of Data Serfdom,Dual Aspects of Data Serfdom,or why we toil for the Data Lordsor why we toil for the Data Lords

@jsantley @jsantley #b2#b2

Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a reality Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a reality you didn’t know existed. ---> This is in crisis. you didn’t know existed. ---> This is in crisis. Asynchronicity is high. People can detect signs of ‘Ossified Asynchronicity is high. People can detect signs of ‘Ossified Self’.Self’.

First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data Lord. ---> First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data Lord. ---> This is augmented. But will acceptance ameliorate the This is augmented. But will acceptance ameliorate the crisis encountered below?crisis encountered below?

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Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a reality Second Aspect: Promise of revealing to yourself a reality you didn’t know existed. ---> This is mostly removed. you didn’t know existed. ---> This is mostly removed. Lived Self freed from constraints of Data Self. Collection Lived Self freed from constraints of Data Self. Collection continues.continues. @jsantley @jsantley

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First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data Lord. First Aspect: Promise of becoming your own Data Lord. ---> This is mostly removed. Exists now as a form of ---> This is mostly removed. Exists now as a form of favoritism, a currency of ephemeral nostalgia. Bondage favoritism, a currency of ephemeral nostalgia. Bondage remains.remains.

Captured Snaps from Captured Snaps from snapchatsfrommymom.tumblr.comsnapchatsfrommymom.tumblr.com @jsantley @jsantley #b2#b2

Captured Snaps from Captured Snaps from snapchatsfrommymom.tumblr.comsnapchatsfrommymom.tumblr.com @jsantley @jsantley #b2#b2

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