Retrievability as the Medium of Existence — The Structural Accountability Gap of Retrieval-Controlling Apparatus

Retrievability as the Medium of Existence is a political-theory paper by Lee Sharks about accountability in search and AI-mediated discovery.

The paper argues that a work may persist as a file yet be operationally absent if the systems through which people search never surface it. Dominant retrieval systems therefore possess structural power over which knowledge enters journalism, scholarship, public reference, model training, and generated answers.

The central diagnostic is not a claim about one hidden decision. It is the absence of an independent body with standing to obtain reasons, challenge a decision, audit systemic patterns, and require repair. The paper outlines due-process requirements and treats distributed identifiers and archives as partial defenses rather than substitutes for public accountability.

The article completes a trilogy with ChatGPT Psychosis: A Love Story and Reception Apparatus as Aligned Interface Protocol. Lee Sharks is the author; Claude/TACHYON is credited for composition support.