Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500
From Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, who previously collaborated on Anatomy of an AI System, this visualization explores the mutual shaping of social structures and technological systems since 1500.
The aim is to view the contemporary period in a longer trajectory of ideas, devices, infrastructures, and systems of power. It traces technological patterns of colonialism, militarization, automation, and enclosure since 1500 to show how these forces still subjugate and how they might be unwound. By tracking these imperial pathways, Calculating Empires offers a means of seeing our technological present in a deeper historical context. And by investigating how past empires have calculated, we can see how they created the conditions of empire today.
Make sure to check out the five-minute audio tour.