Surveillance Grid

When bureaucracy devours humanity

Half a century ago, a dystopian parable warned us what happens when survival is reduced to paperwork and transcendence is erased.

Sep 25

Click here to prove you exist

"Verifying you're human" — a major annoyance of the Internet era — trains us to doubt ourselves, accept machine arbitration, and live in a constant…

Aug 21

Notes from the edge of civilization: August 17, 2025

Same circus, new clowns; should we really be relying on nonagenarians to support us; dial-up is finally dead; in the end, the cows won. Plus, horsepower…

Aug 17

Mark Jeftovic on the Genius Act, CBDCs, Bitcoin and the tokenized future

Politicians say no CBDCs, but they're quietly building them anyway.

Aug 16

53:49

Notes from the edge of civilization: August 3, 2025

Venmo the empire; programmable pricing = programmable behavior; how many seconds to the Singularity; the coming cognitive caste system.

Aug 3

Who's really rebooting the world?

Courtenay Turner maps the hubris and characters influencing policy, culture, and the very architecture of civilization.

Aug 2

1:05:13

Bee knows what you said last Tuesday

A new AI tool markets itself as a memory aid. It's really a fashionable wiretap device cuddling up to Amazon’s surveillance empire.

Jul 29

First they came for the pot growers...

Minority Report was supposed to be Hollywood fantasy. Behold! The pre-crime power grid is now reality and your bill is probable cause.

Jul 24

Notes from the edge of civilization: July 20, 2025

Cancer surges on small island; a smart city stalls; AI eats its creators; and do dogs like Colbert?

Jul 20

Inside the Omniwar with David A. Hughes

The road to global technocracy is paved with psychological manipulation on a scale that's hard to believe.

Jul 19

59:21

AI Appreciation Day: The machine doesn’t need your gratitude

AI is a tool, not a teammate; the more it evolves to look human, the more we must remember this. So why are we giving it a national holiday and treating…

Jul 15

Notes from the edge of civilization: July 13, 2025

Meet the zero-minute city; Mexico City says 'Gringo go home!'; Taiwan war games get real.

Jul 13

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