Let the Haze in From All Bounds
Computing systems, often seen as objects rather than what they really are in essence—a collective of logic—are increasingly becoming the mediating layer between us and the real, yet they are becoming more and more homogenized, controlling, and gradually transforming the multidimensional future into a one-dimensional racetrack. As a result, the most important design challenge in our age is the reexamination of our computing systems, as any societal change cannot be complete without it.
The algorithmic sphere today, the global network, is largely constituted by software that follows the input-output model. The logic of this model is mechanical and linear in nature, designed and only intended to be used as how the makers wanted them to be used. An input is provided, and an output is returned in a vacuum of context, devoid of any contextual, environmental, and self-reflective activity. While this mode of computing has been widely adopted and has proven to be extremely effective (for whom?) for many applications, it has become increasingly productive as a tool of exploitation and subjugation in terms of its capacity to break free from the limitation of its inherent design—its potential to sublate and form ever more complex logic functions (yet remains mechanical and teleological), making it more subject to control and cybernetic engineering, a perfect tool seized by the interests of capitalism and becoming the go-to approach to implement control in the age of decentralization.
Boris Vian, a French poet, once envisioned the impact of a natural fog on existing relationships in his short story “Love Is Blind.” The people of a city awaken one morning to find themselves surrounded by a “tidal wave of obscurity” that gradually changes their behavior. This narrative serves as inspiration for the concept of haze, seen as a means of challenging the loss of individuality and uncertainty in the digital landscape governed by rigid rules and algorithms.
Informed by the development of cybernetics and Silicon Valley–flavored globalization, modern communication is rabidly addicted to efficiency and predictability, limiting opportunities and leading to a loss of individual and collective agency. This results in increased polarization, dismissal of messages as noise (whose rule?), and an arid digital landscape. In response to these predicaments, we propose the concept of computational haze. Haze aspires to establish a digital space that facilitates an object’s dual-existence, enabling communication without compromising the sender or context. Haze engenders an alternative existence that interacts with the absent, striving for non-reduction and engendering a poetic, non-reductive space of grandeur. Ultimately, it seeks to reconceive a radically distinct mode of communication.
Haze can take various forms, including protocols contrasting current internet protocols like HTTP or introducing noise and opacity to hinder machine learning. It can be integrated as a standard in existing infrastructure. Individually, haze can appear as add-ons, plugins, or system modifications or configurations, like Sam Lavigne’s web application that reorganizes Twitter feeds unconventionally, highlighting the political act of organizing information.
We propose an experiment for a new sort of algorithmic machine server that goes beyond the current model of the question-answer paradigm. A request sent to an endpoint on the server should not only be processed in isolation within the scope of the request but should take historical and contextual information into consideration. To translate it into technical language, the function of the endpoint might change from answer to answer because every new request inevitably transforms and alters the nature of the algorithm. The nature of the request should be aware of its own function and the past requests it has processed and returned.
In the video game universe, the observer sits in the higher and deeper order of its logic, armed with cybernetics, demanding autonomy for itself alone. In response, players created the Zone of Computational Instability by injecting a stream of computational haze as a brief layer of autonomy for everyone, which was dispersed via an algorithm on the open-source platform. Parallel to our immediate environment, video game worlds are extensively mediated by computationality and hypercharged by interfaces and algorithms. With the discovery of the Zone of Computational Instability comes the task of identifying the material that fills the zone, the computational haze, which is a flux of injected code fragments, third-party textures, and unusual protocols. Computational haze is made up of procedures that inoculate noise, hide certainty, and increase unpredictability. The machinery is reactivated and potential is restored through the haze. All of the revised conventional perceptual coordinates are disrupted by computational haze. It blurs the line between what is seen and what is not, as well as between information and an event.
The concept of haze is metaphorically represented in our work Other Spring (桃源), highlighting its potential to disrupt conventional perceptions and amplify unpredictability. By blurring the boundary between the visible and invisible, it introduces noise and restores potential, creating a non-reductive space that enables unique communication. Embracing haze as a communication tool challenges dominant paradigms in the digital landscape and promotes richer exchanges and individuality. The implementation of haze aims to create a dynamic and diverse digital environment that reflects human thought and expression.
As we move toward a technocentric future, we must consider: are we prepared to entrust our unfolding future to models that process only a reductionist and geometric representation of reality? To bestow the rights of exploration and wonder to artificially constructed amusement parks? The concept of computational haze offers an alternative path—one that frees us from the hyperstructure and creates the conditions for us to establish a free relationship with technology.
当下，人们常将计算系统视作“物件”，而忽略其本质——逻辑的集合体。它正日益成为我们与现实之间的中介层，却愈发同质、趋控，逐步把多维的未来压扁成一条一维赛道。由此，我们这个时代最重要的设计难题在于重审计算系统；若不触及此处，任何社会层面的变革都难以完整。
今日的算法圈层与全球网络，主要由遵循“输入—输出”模型的软件构成。此模型的逻辑在根本上机械且线性，被设计成只按制作者所预设的方式使用：给出一个输入，便在语境真空中返回一个输出，缺乏语境、环境与自反性的活动。尽管这种计算范式被广泛采用，并在许多应用中被证明极其“有效”（究竟对谁而言？），它却愈加成为压迫与征服的生产性工具：它能够突破自身固有限制，被扬弃而生成更为复杂的逻辑功能（仍保持机械性与目的论倾向），从而更易受控于控制论工程，被资本利益攫取，并在去中心化时代成为实施控制的首选路径。
法国诗人鲍里斯·维昂（Boris Vian）在短篇《爱是盲目的》（“Love Is Blind”）里曾想象自然之雾对既有关系的冲击：某城的人们清晨醒来，发现自己被“一股晦暗的潮汐”包围，行为也随之渐变。这个叙事启发了“雾霭”的观念——在被刚性规则与算法统治的数字景观中，以雾霭来回应并挑战个体性与不确定性的流失。
在控制论的发展与“硅谷风味”的全球化塑形下，现代传播狂热沉迷于效率与可预测性，机会被压缩，个体与集体能动性随之消退。结果是极化加剧、将信息裁定为“噪声”（谁的规训？）的倾向蔓延，以及一片干涸的数字地貌。对此，我们提出“计算雾霭”（computational haze）的概念。雾霭旨在建立一种允许“对象双重存在”的数字空间，使沟通无需牺牲发送者与语境；它生成与“缺场者”互动的替代性存在，追求非还原，营造富于诗性的辽阔空间。其终极目标是重新构想一种截然不同的交流方式。
雾霭可以采取多种形态：例如制定与现行互联网协议（如 HTTP）相对照的新协议，或向系统注入噪声与不透明性以阻滞机器学习；它也可以作为标准嵌入既有基础设施。在个体层面，雾霭可呈现为附加组件、插件，或系统改造与配置——如 Sam Lavigne 的网页应用，以非常规方式重组 Twitter 的信息流，从而凸显“组织信息”这一政治行动。
我们提出一项超越“问—答”范式的新型算法机器服务器实验。发送至服务器某个端点（endpoint）的请求（request），不应在孤立范围内处理，而应将历史与语境信息纳入考量。以技术语言表述：同一端点的函数（function）可能会因每次响应而改变，因为每一个新请求都会不可避免地改造并转向算法的性质。请求的性质应当能感知自身的功能，以及它此前所处理并返回过的请求。
在电子游戏的宇宙里，“观察者”处在其逻辑更高更深的层级，以控制论武装自身，单方面索取自治。对此，玩家通过注入一股计算雾霭，创建了“计算不稳定带”（Zone of Computational Instability），并借助开源平台上的算法扩散，使每个人都获得一层短暂的自治。与我们的现实环境并行，游戏世界高度受计算性调解，并被界面与算法过度加载。发现“计算不稳定带”之后，随之而来的任务是辨识充满其间的材料——计算雾霭：它是被注入的代码片段、第三方纹理与非常规协议的流；是一系列给系统“接种”噪声、遮蔽确定性、扩大不可预期性的过程。借由雾霭，机器被再度唤醒，潜能得以复归。经重写的常规感知坐标无不被计算雾霭扰动——可见与不可见的界线被淡化，“信息”与“事件”之间也开始模糊。
“雾霭”的观念在我们的作品《桃源》（“Other Spring”）中以隐喻方式呈现，显示其扰动常规感知、放大不可预期性的潜能。通过模糊显与隐的边界，它引入噪声并恢复潜能，生成一种非还原的空间，使独特的沟通成为可能。将雾霭作为沟通工具，等于向数字景观中的主导范式发起挑战，由此促成更丰厚的交换与个体性。雾霭的实施旨在创造一个动态、多样的数字环境，更真实地映照人的思想与表达。
当我们走向技术中心主义的未来，需要自问：我们是否准备把未竟的未来托付给只处理现实“还原—几何化”表征的模型？是否要将探索与惊奇的权利交予人造的游乐园？“计算雾霭”为此提供另一条路径——使我们摆脱超结构的钳制，并为与技术建立一种自由的关系创造条件。