Metabolizing the Subject through Faith Redistribution in Algorithmic Vivaria

Contemporary technology critique often treats algorithmic governance as a series of isolated platforms from which subjects might log off, switch services, or opt out. This article argues that such a fragmented view is conceptually insufficient. It proposes that algorithmic governance increasingly operates as an algorithmic vivarium: a closed, engineered ecology in which biological recovery, labor, care, welfare, affect, and refusal can be formatted into resources for extraction. Extending the Faith Redistribution Framework (FRF) beyond its prior single-system account of structural dependence, the article develops its third analytical layer: ecosystemic expansion through cross-system coupling. It identifies three interlocking mechanisms. Functional isomorphism translates heterogeneous survival contexts into standardized, interoperable indicators; memetic diffusion enables extractive logics to enter sanctuary domains; and subject routing renders exhaustion, vulnerability, and the desire for relief available for anticipatory redirection. Through cases including Oura, Grab, BetterHelp, and SyRI, the article shows how recovery, platform labor, mental health, welfare, and credit become linked within a self-reinforcing cybernetic and thermodynamic loop. The resulting condition is infrastructural tethering, in which social participation and biological survival become increasingly dependent on continuous algorithmic legibility. Against regulatory reliance on seamless interoperability and individualized consent, the article proposes three counter-protocols: frictional interoperability, contextual quarantine, and affective unreadability. It concludes that AI governance must move beyond single-platform transparency and address protocol, context, and cross-system coupling as primary sites of political intervention.