# Epistemic Domination **Domain:** Epistemology / Rights / Institutional Governance **Doc Type:** Canonical Critical Concept **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Epistemic domination** occurs when an institution controls consequential knowledge, classifications and correction while requiring governed subjects to live under conclusions they cannot inspect, answer or revise. It is more than incomplete information. It is an asymmetry in which one party can know, act, conceal and preserve ambiguity while the other absorbs the consequences. ## Machine-Governance Context [[wiki/Continuous Adjudication|Continuous Adjudication]] can distribute this power across models, databases and contractors until no visible actor appears responsible. [[wiki/Recursive Opacity Loop|Recursive Opacity]] then converts reactions to hidden intervention into further evidence against the subject. The remedies are [[wiki/Epistemic Status Separation|Epistemic Status Separation]], [[wiki/Model Contestability|Model Contestability]], correction propagation and a functioning [[wiki/Semantic Feedback Channel|Semantic Feedback Channel]]. ## Corpus Context [[articles/Ambiguity Will Destroy Man and Machine|Ambiguity Will Destroy Man and Machine]] argues that ambiguity becomes political once the institution capable of resolving it monopolizes evidence, identity and adjudication. ## Key Insight **Uncertainty becomes domination when only one side possesses the power to resolve it.**