Invisible Machines
You can read a hundred warnings about algorithms and dark patterns and still not feel how they work on you. These are short, hands-on experiences that let you feel it in about two minutes — then name the trick, so you can spot it everywhere after.
Everything runs entirely on your device. No accounts, no tracking, nothing sent anywhere. Free to copy and reuse.
Scroll a feed and watch a real engagement-optimizer quietly narrow your world to a loud little corner — from nothing but your taps. Then flip its goal and watch it reopen.
Start →Try to cancel a subscription and feel every trick built to stop you — the buried exit, the guilt, the fake countdown, the pre-ticked trap. Then see each one named.
Start →The same airline seat, a different price for everyone. Flip what a site can guess about you — your device, location, urgency — and watch the number move.
Start →Apply for a loan and let an automated system judge you. Change only your neighborhood and watch the verdict flip — then see the hidden rule it never showed you, and your rights.
Start →Toggle a few completely ordinary actions and watch a profile infer things you never disclosed — pregnancy, money trouble, where you work. The danger is the sum.
Start →Every page you open auctions your attention in 0.2 seconds. Watch advertisers bid on you in real time — and see who pays the most for the most vulnerable.
Start →A small, growing set — built with care, given freely (CC0). Works offline; open any page’s
source and you’ll find nothing phoning home.
(“Invisible Machines” is a working
name.)