MANUAL KIT SON LEE ET AL MANUAL (SHIFT CTRL) MANUAL (SHIFT CTRL) KIT SON LEE et al. TABLE OF CONTENTS 7 FOREWORD Kit Son Lee 9 GLOSSARY 159 REFERENCES 163 Readings 221 Arts 257 Websites 269 Softwares & Hardwares 283 Games 305 LEXICONS 322 SIGNATURES 324 COLOPHON FOREWORD Kit Son Lee Manual accompanies CTRL SHIFT as its user manual. Collected here are the inputs that led to the output presented in the other book, the way computers receive inputs to generate outputs. The inputs in this volume together provide insight into CTRL SHIFT’s operations, thereby fulfilling Manual’s role as a user You are here manual. These conceits are extensions of CTRL SHIFT’s endeavor to model a computer (see CTRL SHIFT, pg 11). Manual is itself a model; it functions as a user manual but is not in actuality a user manual. User manuals typically instruct the reader on using the device in the box, but Manual is not meant to be prescriptive. Where other books relegate termi­­- nology, references, and lexicons to back matter, Manual instead presents them as main body content. This distinction is exaggerated further through the use of large type and illustrative imagery. Manual declares itself to be a book in its own right. A reader can therefore choose to read only this book. The inputs need not be tied to the outputs in CTRL SHIFT. This decoupling is an affordance of 7 a book that models a user manual alongside a book that models a computer. Their relationship can be reconfigured to break the directives of its referrants. GLOSSARY Additionally, the inputs need not be tied to the author of the outputs: me. The works in CTRL SHIFT are the results of my processing; the inputs are mediated by my understanding or lack thereof. Manual was compiled with the hope that its readers will approach the content with their own frameworks, perspectives, and ways of knowing, without the threat of my interpellation. To this end, all of the images and the vast majority of the words in Manual are not mine. They are offered as I initially encoun- tered them—in Wikipedia articles, Google searches, dictionaries, and source materials. That is why this section is a foreword and not a preface—a preface is written by the author of a book, while a foreword is algorithm closed system DMZ written by someone else. I concede authorship to the armistice code doxx above amalgamation and to the reader, whose ouput Arnold’s Cat Map cognitive easter egg I eagerly await. Auterism estrangment The Eye of Of course, I recognize that total concession is attention command line Providence impossible. Beyond the fact of my curation, this book economy computer Fibonacci is designed, meaning my mediation remains a threat. backend computer vision sequence My concession is therefore a gesture to argue that development console feedback partialness, whether of knowledge or success, can bouba/kiki corpus foley still move towards. As for reaching the destination, effect cybernetics forcing that remains to be seen. All I know is that I cannot Big data cyberpunk frame rate get there alone. The alternate title for Manual is SHIFT black box cyborg framework CTRL; though the shift might be incremental, incre - caesar cipher cypherpunk frontend ments together approach a total. My partial yielding chaos magic decentralized development of control is an increment as such, in anticipation of chaos theory decision tree furry readers to come and shifts with each, until the way chaotic map direct fursona is cleared. chimera manipulation GamerGate cli-fi div GUI 8 10 hack neg substitution hard science nerf cipher fiction nootropic surveillance ALGORITHM horror vacui novum capitalism hostile object-oriented tech bubble hot take ontology technē hyperlink OCR technoliberalism hypermedia one-time pad technology hypertext open source tofu information open system torus innovation orientalism transparency economy ouroboros UAV interface outopos UI elements Internet own unicorn IP address P2P user IP tracking panopticon user-friendly kettling PrEP user-hostile keylogging procedural warchalking leet generation will-to-power lexicon program WYSIWYG library programming machine learning language malware roguelike Markov chain role-playing meme game (RPG) metaphor sabotage A process or set of instructions microworld Sacred Geometry to be followed in calculations or mobile-first Ship it model shitpost other problem-solving operations. mutual aid sigil Algorithms differ from computer mystification snake myth software programs in that 1) they must natural language speculative solve something, and 2) they Natural Language biology Processing steganography must have an end. 10 Glossary 11 ARMISTICE An agreement made by opposing sides in a war to stop fighting for a certain time; a truce. 12 Glossary 13 ARNOLD’S CAT MAP (mathematics) A chaotic map from the torus into itself, named after Vladimir Arnold, who demonstrated its effects in the 1960s using an image of a cat, hence the name. A feature of a discrete cat map is that an image is apparently randomized into noise by the transformation but returns to its original state after a number of steps. 14 Glossary ATTENTION AUTERISM ECONOMY An economic approach to infor- mation that treats human atten- (film theory) tion as a scarce commodity. The In film criticism, the theory accord- term was coined by psychologist, ing to which the primary creator economist, and Nobel Laureate of a film is the director, all of whose Herbert A. Simon, who posited works are said to reflect to a cer- that attention was the “bottleneck tain degree the characteristics of of human thought.” a personal style. 16 Glossary 17 BACKEND BIG DATA DEVELOP- MENT A field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data (computing) sets that are too large or complex The writing of code to be exe- to be dealt with by traditional cuted on the server side of a web data-processing application soft- application and everything that ware. An example of big data in communicates between the data- use is the tailoring of ads on social base and the browser. media and search platforms. 18 Glossary 19 BLACK BOX BOUBA/KIKI EFFECT (psychology) A non-arbitrary mapping between speech sounds and the visual shape of objects, first docu- mented by Wolfgang Köhler in 1929 using nonsense words. Köhler showed two forms to particpants and asked them (computing) which shape was called “takete” In machine learning, a black box and which was called “baluba.” is a system whose inputs and There was a strong preference operations are completely hidden. to pair the jagged shape with Black box models are created “takete” and the rounded shape directly from data by an algorithm. with “baluba.” 20 Glossary 21 CAESAR CIPHER (cryptography) An encryption technique in which each letter is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet, e.g. “A” becomes “B,” “B” becomes “C,” etc. The Caesar cipher is named for Julius Caesar, who used an alphabet where decrypting would shift three letters to the left. 22 Glossary CHAOS MAGIC A contemporary magical practice developed in the 1960s that emphasizes the attainment of specific results over the symbolic, ritualistic, or otherwise ornamen- tal aspects of other occult tradi- tions. Chaos magic holds a post- modernist skepticism concerning the existence or knowability of objective truth. Chaos magicians subsequently treat belief as a tool, often creating their own idiosyncratic magical systems and frequently borrowing from other magical traditions, religious movements, popular culture and various strands of philosophy. 24 Glossary 25 CHAOS CHAOTIC THEORY MAP (mathematics) A branch of mathematics focusing on the study of chaos—dynami- cal systems whose apparently random states of disorder and irregularities are actually gov- (mathematics) erned by underlying patterns and A map (evolution function) that deterministic laws that are highly exhibits some sort of chaotic sensitive to initial conditions. behavior. 26 Glossary 27 CHIMERA (in Greek mythology) A fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. A thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve. (biology) An organism containing a mixture of genetically different tissues, formed by processes such as fusion of early embryos, grafting, or mutation. 28 Glossary 29 CLI-FI CLOSED SYSTEM (systems theory) A physical system that does not exchange any matter with its A portmanteau of “climate” and surroundings, and is not subject “science fiction,” climate fiction to any net force whose source (Cli-Fi) refers to works that deal is external to the system. Closed with climate change and global systems are often used to limit the warming as a primary component factors that can affect the results of speculative worldbuilding. of specific problem or experiment. 30 Glossary 31 CODE COGNITIVE ESTRANGE- MENT (cryptography) A system of words, letters, figures, or other symbols substituted for other words, letters, etc., espe- cially for the purposes of secrecy. (computing) (literature) Instructions for a computer A narrative logic, characteristic written in a human-legible alpha- of science fiction, whereby numeric system. devices used in the story are lent plausibility by their being placed (verb) in the context of the fictional To put in or into the form or sym- universe, which is imagined to be bols of a code; to create or edit scientifically consistent. The term computer code. was coined by Darko Suvin. 32 Glossary 33 COMMAND COMPUTER LINE (computing) A text-based user interface navi- An electronic device for storing gated by typing commands at and processing data, typically prompts, instead of using a mouse. in binary form, according to Unlike a GUI, a command line only instructions given to it in a vari- uses a keyboard to navigate by able program.