Theory as Practice
The Cubic Order
Technological Control, Environmental Collapse, and Resistance
Abstract
This paper extends the "Cube Problem" metaphor – AI's persistent reversion to cubic forms despite instructions for asymmetrical collapse – to analyse contemporary socio- technical-environmental systems. I argue that the same structural logic manifests in how algorithmic systems impose order on climate chaos, how surveillance capitalism fragments collective understanding, and how authoritarian governance neutralises resistance.
Drawing on critical theory, political ecology, and my own art-based research, I demonstrate how these interlocking systems resist fundamental change through mechanisms that parallel the AI cube's stubborn persistence. Intervention requires forces outside the system's internal logic – specifically through environmental and political activism – that can challenge the Cubic Order's foundational premises and reveal alternative futures beyond its rigid geometries.
