JAS, reading this alongside your kerplinko post yesterday, illegibility shows up as the move in both pieces, but the ethics hinge on who controls visibility. Companies don’t go dark, they misdirect, projecting agency onto the system in ways that diffuse responsibility. Individuals go dark to preserve authorship. Some communities do the opposite and insist on being seen to avoid erasure. Same fight in three directions: who decides when you’re visible, and on whose terms.

The autonomy shield is a grab for that boundary. The catacombs are a refusal. The through-line feels less about AI than about preserving the human moment of decision inside systems designed to absorb it.