Who will remember us when the servers go dark?
Presented during transmediale 2026 as introduction to the selfservice.studio workshop (Chris Dake-Outhet & Eren İleri), Cade Diehm’s essay on anti-cybernetic frameworks is published now by @newdesigncongress.org
► newdesigncongress.org/en/pub/who-w...
Wow. What a spectacular long-read by @shibco.newdesigncongress.org from @newdesigncongress.org! 👏
newdesigncongress.org/en/pub/who-w...
In other news, @newdesigncongress.org is BACK
newdesigncongress.org/email/11d79b...
watched Cade Diehm's "Who will remember us when the servers go dark?" again
https://youtu.be/m2OFRXLwRvg?si=lt2YtPzvTnUxcnaK
do I know anyone that went to the "Cultural memory at the end of the end of history" workshop?
We have been quiet for nearly a year.
Starting today, NDC is BACK.
Here's why we were gone:
newdesigncongress.org/email/11d79b...
It ends by compiling nearly a decade of work I have done, naming the post-institutional movements building outside institutional protection, from @furscience.bsky.social to @kgpaints.bsky.social. This is a concept I call Exilic design. newdesigncongress.org/en/pub/who-w...
An Iranian ICB falls over Amazon's AWS Dubai facilities
From there it traces the cost of Barlow's Independence of Cyberspace myth against the realities of mask-off authoritarianism channeled through digital archives, social spaces, and infrastructure collapse.
This essay starts with a story I've never told publicly: my time on the original @signal.org team in 2015, and finding myself on a boat in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Honolulu. This was the moment I realised that violence is baked into every packet and every byte of the digital revolution.
Today I'm publishing the most personal essay I've ever written for @newdesigncongress.org
Who Will Remember Us When The Servers Go Dark?
newdesigncongress.org/en/pub/who-w...
Good catch, thank you!
I got the tea from members of @peoplevsbigtech.bsky.social across Europe on what Trump's victory means for digital rights + tech justice over here.
Ft. @coricrider.com @neveragainnw.bsky.social @chriskremidascourt.bsky.social @newdesigncongress.org + other pros blog.peoplevsbig.tech/trump-x-euro...
The image features a vibrant, dreamy aesthetic with neon-style typography. The text “THE PARA-REAL” appears in bold pink and blue hues, overlaying a scenic dusk or twilight background with utility poles and wires. Below, additional text reads: "TOGETHER IN THE WIRES: PARA-REAL MEMORY IN ELECTRIC WORLDS," accompanied by Korean text that translates similarly. A reflective, traffic mirror for seeing around sharp corners is central to the composition.
The image features a surreal arrangement of abstract sculptures, each draped with a distorted, semi-transparent sheet printed with human faces. The glossy surfaces of the sheets reflect soft lighting, adding a dreamlike quality. The objects rest on pastel bases against a light blue background, creating a clean, minimalist aesthetic. The juxtaposition of human imagery and abstract forms evokes themes of identity, perception, and digital manipulation.
The image appears as a textured, distorted render of the burning of the Library of Alexandria rendered in soft hues of grey and purple. It evokes a fragmented cityscape or a distorted topographical map, with vertical streaks resembling extrusions or data visualizations. The abstract aesthetic suggests themes of digital decay, memory, and the interplay between virtual and physical realities. The overall effect is otherworldly and immersive, blending structure and chaos.
Cade and artist Benjamin Busch speaking at New Practice in Art and Technology's Loops panel discussion. The event is hosted in Berlin and shows a modern, open indoor setting. Several participants sit in a semi-circle, some with laptops and notepads, Cade, center, gestures with a microphone with Benjamin behind him. A large screen in the background displays a still from Serial Experiments Lain, and features a girl (Lain) with a pensive expression, connected to a futuristic environment.
A small intro!
I'm Cade (aka Shibco), I run a small research group from Berlin called newdesigncongress.org. We do a weird mix of digital security/threat modeling, and research ecologies, subculture resilience, digital identity, and data/interface politics.
I'm also quietly designing a video game.
The Internet Archive seriously needs a black ops wing.
Awesome, Cent is amazing -- I misunderstood your previous post and thought maybe we were expected at a particular venue or event! Hah.
Is there a particular event or connection you're referring to here?
SELF-(DE)TERMINATION: THE FATAL AMBIGUITY OF DIGITAL IDENTITY
Alongside digital identity's flawed first principles, the incomplete reckoning of the electronic self leaves the entire field incapable of discerning the shortcomings of digital identity:
newdesigncongress.org/en/note/2024...
We are! Now all we need is some decent automation tools and we'll be cooking with fire
there is nothing ambitious about building a car.
NEW FROM NDC
IDENTIFYING THE DIGITAL SELF
Despite years of information security innovation, digital identity remains the weakest link in digitised societies. To combat the weaponisation of digital systems, we must rethink the first principle of digital identity
newdesigncongress.org/en/note/2024...
