How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI

Format: Hardback 192 pages, 55 integrated images Publisher: Verso Books Imprint: Verso Books ISBN: 9781836742173 Published: 19 May 2026 Weight: 282g Dimensions: 218 x 149 x 19 (mm) Pub. Country: United Kingdom Country of Origin: GB Tariff Codes: 49019900 Description Today our world is under the watchful and tireless eye of computer vision, with cam­eras and monitors tracing our every move. Furthermore, generative AI is now able to render a synthetic world indistinguishable from reality for us to explore. Trevor Paglen goes in search of the ways and means of understanding this new visual universe. Instead of asking what these technologies "say" about the world, he teaches us to ask what they "do" and where such images come from. Exploring the esoteric worlds of psyops, UFO imagery, magicians, and public relation gurus, Paglen shows that this appar­ently alien realm is more human, but much stranger, than we imagine.