@aspensmonster @jonny Thanks for taking the time with something so thoughtful. I appreciate it. To respond:
First: although it may seem to be, I'm not making a philosophical argument in this essay. The essay stays strictly in a material and political context. The distinction matters because your counter-arguments are largely philosophical (turtles all the way down, all representations are simulacra, memory is non-consensual by nature.( These are interesting positions, but they don't address what the essay is actually doing. The essay is asking who controls the archive, who bears the cost when it's weaponised, and whose agency is stripped when preservation happens without participation. Those are questions about power, that's where my work lies, and I made that clear in my strict adherence to the material consequences of digital systems.