9.21.2022

Shoshona Zuboff on Surveillance Capitalism and AI

An interview with GPT3 -- one of several AI's trained on 175 billion paremeters of data

PREDPOL -- carceral use of data like geofences and location info, combined with machine learning and predictive algorithms

Palantir -- current software most seriously invested in big data

Palantir Gotham -- One frontfacing product of Palentir

This is a Link to directions on close reading from the Harvard Writing Center (not necissarily any better than our writing center!)

A Few Points On Close Reading:

1. READthe word "text" describing things other than language is not a mistake. It represents a way of thinking about viewership and engagement that could be helpful. It might be easier to "write" about something if you've already "read" it, even if that "reading" was viewing, or feeling, or tasting, or some other form of experience. (or in our case, watch with pen in hand, and ANNOTATEas in, create marginalia. Scribble thoughts without concern for relevance, muse out loud to an imaginary (or maybe real) other viewer of the work, then commit your musings to paper(or digital page)
2. Take note especially of SURPRISESThey are more likely to challenge preconceptions and expectations than are things you find important, which may only reinforce bias.
3. Catalogue your observations. Make note of everything you noticed that seemed important or weirdly unimportant. You could frame the list in terms of Aesthetics, RHETORIC,as in: AM I BEING SOLD SOMETHING? narrative, symbolism, character, CULTURE,COULD THIS HAVE BEEN MADE IN ANOTHER PLACE? ANOTHER TIME? BY SOMEONE ELSE? structure, language (AND MORE!)
4. Run through your initial observations and use INDUCTIVE REASONINGOr: Observation-based reasoning. Using objective evidence to build an idea. to form a "thesis."
5. Draw on the catalogue of notes, evidence, and patterns, questions, and other things you've chosen to include in order to brainstorm how you might talk about your thesis.Doesn't have to be an "if-then" statement. Doesn't even have to be an argumentative point.
6. KEEP THE SCOPE IN CHECK.This allows you to really zoom in on the details instead of getting bogged down in excessive summary. It's more convincing, and it's more likely to read as "orignial," plus it should be more fun to write. Start very small, then move out.
   
   Ed Snowden's minimalist dress-code and every-man style is meant to obscure the class assumptions in his tech-positivism
   is better than:
   Ed Snowden's minimal dress-code, his every-man style, the neutrality of the hotel room, the anonymity of the filmmaker, and the sparse typography of his messages all obscure the class assumptions in his tech positivism.


7. Keep going back to the text if you get confused or the project seems out of hand
8. Turn that thesis into an OUTLINEWe'll go into outlines next week. Don't worry about that for now, unless you have your process 100% down and you want to get a jump start.

Here's a link to the assignment prompt