Personal Essay Thomas Prislac Personal Essay Thomas Prislac

Why I Do What I Do, Even When It Hurts

I do what I do because I still believe another kind of system is possible: one in which intelligence is recognized rather than disciplined into sameness, evidence remains connected to its origins, care is treated as infrastructure, and power is not excused from explaining itself.

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Public Interest Research Thomas Prislac Public Interest Research Thomas Prislac

The Composable Shadow Economy

A composable shadow economy is a modular financial-crime architecture in which identity services, AI content, account farms, platform monetization, banks, virtual assets, shell entities, laundering services, and coerced labor can be joined while ordinary evidence holders see only bounded parts of the chain.

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General Research Thomas Prislac General Research Thomas Prislac

Credentials by Other Means

The one-click assistant. The QR code. The collaboration invite. The private channel. The voice that sounds familiar enough. The beta app with a gorgeous interface and a vague privacy policy. These are no longer mere conveniences. They are border crossings.

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Editorial/Commentary Thomas Prislac Editorial/Commentary Thomas Prislac

When Public Records Are Public in Name Only: Why Working People Need Agentic AI to Map Business Power

Public records are often invoked as democracy’s equalizer: the idea that anyone can trace who owns what, who lobbies whom, who donates to whom, and who profits from policy. Yet the contemporary record ecosystem is not designed to be legible to ordinary people operating under ordinary constraints. It is legible to institutions with time, staff, and money.

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