Algorithmic Hypnosis
Abstract
This thesis is about futures which are inscribed in the present. It is about the past determining the future and the future determining the present. It is also about artificial intelligence, algorithmic learning and the politics of mediums as they curate our sense of time. Today’s landscape is curated by algorithmic machines that are quickly taking over all aspects of social relations. Looking at media-theorist Wendy H.K. Chun’s analysis of homophily (i.e., love of sameness; commonality), I observe the regionality of standard critiques of capital and feel out new modes of resistance which do away with the discourse of the “commons” so very prevalent in philosophical critiques of political economy and technology. Turning to thinkers like Wendy H.K. Chun, Sylvia Wynter, Alexander Galloway, Bernard Stiegler and Françoise Laruelle, I look at how the politics of commonality are embedded in the technologies which surround us, both in the mainstream as well as in critical thought.