Transparency through opacity

One of the topicsof my forthcoming book, The Glass Cage, is the riseof “technology-centered automation” as the dominantdesign philosophy of computer engineers and programmers. The philosophy gives precedence to the capabilities of technology over the interests of people. One of its governing characteristics is opacity, the hiding of the workings of an application or system behind a “user-friendly” interface. In an interview with VVVNT, the New Zealand artist and engineer Julian Oliver, coauth...