Data circulation requires compressing semantically rich behavior into discrete tags.

Evidence

The interface is the imaginary portal to the circulation of information. Along with our imaginary illusions and cathected images, what the circuit propels is data, which must be harvested from more semantically full and/or ambiguous relations in order to then be exchanged. Philosopher Bernard Stiegler describes this compositing process as one of “discretization,” a flattening that advances the data revolution: to arrive at countable quanta of information, behaviors and words must be compressed into tags. Such desemanticization is foundational for information circulation and activates the tech basis for the mediation compression we will study in literature, televisuality, and theory in the coming chapters. — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 72

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘discretization’ (Stiegler’s term) as the flattening that converts behavior into countable, exchangeable data tags.
• XREF: The desemanticization-compression-of-meaning-into-circuit logic resonates with Jameson’s account of postmodern commodification and the collapse of depth models. — connects to: Initial coding organizes raw text into researcher-driven meaningful groups — Amy Fisher-Smith, Charles R. Sullivan, John D. Macready, and Geoffrey Manzi, Identity Reconfiguration and the Core…, 287