The 12 Axes of the Technology Spectrum
An ultra-fine-grained model adding dimensions of scale and relationship to human autonomy. Building on the 8 Axes, we add: Axis 9: Local-Global (operates in one place vs. everywhere). Axis 10: Synchronous-Asynchronous (real-time interaction vs. delayed). Axis 11: Voluntary-Enforcing (used by choice vs. imposed by systems). Axis 12: Empowering-Controlling (increases user agency vs. reduces it). These twelve axes generate 4096 technology-types. A hammer is local, synchronous, voluntary, empowering. A credit score is global, asynchronous, enforcing, controlling. Social credit systems are designed for the enforcing-controlling quadrant. The 12 Axes reveal that technologies aren't just tools—they're relationships, and those relationships have politics built into their very structure.
The 12 Axes of the Technology Spectrum "You think the problem with facial recognition is just privacy. The 12 Axes show it's deeper: it's soft, industrial (mostly), replacing (of anonymity), opaque, centralized, exploitative, ephemeral (data expires? lol no), deskilling (of observation), global, asynchronous, enforcing, controlling. Twelve axes, twelve problems. Privacy is just the one we talk about."
The 12 Axes of the Technology Spectrum by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026
