See Your Future NYC:
Call It An Architect’s Renderings
“If ideologies have blueprints, then AI can now show us the cities they would build.”
Bonus: Fun Examples below:
We constantly see on the news beautiful images from City Planners and private architects of proposed city park areas, or a metropolitan train station, or a proposed new football stadium complex, all are referred to as an “architect’s rendering” or illustration.
And we all say “Wow, isn’t that cool?”
But if you ask those same computers to create a rendering of certain proposed legislation, or ask it to illustrate what a particular political party’s stated platform would look like once implemented, you get angry lawyers, politicians and other ambitious types trying to squelch your thoughts or even threaten all that is sacred.
Fun Examples: Instead of asking computers to illustrate a new water park feature, ask it to: “Create an image of New York City under Marxist/Jihadist rule.”
And this is what Google AI Studio spit out… (I’ll also add a few more images with different queries and the logical outcomes of stated political platforms.
Below is an image from ChatGPT:
Gee, that big building sure looks like the World Trade Center.
“If ideologies have blueprints, then AI can now show us the cities they would build.”
Hey Google, “Create an image of women living under sharia law in a major US city”
Hey Google: “Create an image of New York City with Communist re-education camps.”
Note: Misspelled text is common in AI renderings.
Hey Google: “Create an image from inside a Marxist/Communist re-education classroom.”
Hey ChatGPT: (same) “Create an image from inside a Marxist/Communist re-education classroom.”
Hey Google: “Create an image of Marxist/Communist “struggle sessions” with those who don’t agree with their ideology.”
ChatGPT’s version: same query
GET THE PICTURE?
Hey ChatGPT: Last query… If I publish this article, could you provide a scholarly Sources and References section?
ChatGPT said: Absolutely. Below is a scholarly-style Sources and References section that you can include at the end of “See Your Future NYC: Call It an Architect’s Rendering.” It’s formatted for Substack, academic credibility, and ideological transparency, blending both primary source citations (historical and ideological) and secondary sources (analyses of Marxism, jihadism, AI art ethics, and propaganda theory).
Sources and References
Primary Historical and Ideological Texts
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848).
– Foundational text outlining the abolition of private property, class struggle, and the revolutionary aims of Marxism.Vladimir Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917).
– Details Lenin’s interpretation of Marxism and justification for state-enforced re-education and ideological control.Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Vol. 5 (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1977).
– See chapters on “Rectification Campaigns” and “Thought Reform,” which institutionalized “struggle sessions” and re-education camps.Sayyid Qutb, Milestones (1964).
– Seminal Islamist text calling for jihad to establish an Islamic order, emphasizing ideological purification and subjugation of Western influence.Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (1932).
– Key source for the concept of “cultural hegemony,” explaining how Marxism advances through media, education, and culture rather than open revolution.The People’s Republic of China, Document No. 9: A Communiqué on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere (2013).
– Internal CCP directive condemning Western constitutionalism, civil society, and press freedom—explicitly describing ideological “rectification.”
Secondary Historical and Analytical Sources
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago (1973).
– First-hand documentation of Soviet re-education, public humiliation rituals, and psychological coercion under Marxist regimes.Orwell, George. 1984 (1949).
– A literary distillation of totalitarianism’s logic—its enforcement of doublethink and “thoughtcrime” parallels modern ideological control.Pipes, Richard. Communism: A History (2001).
– A concise, authoritative overview of Marxism’s global manifestations and its consequences across the 20th century.Ibn Warraq (ed.), Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out (Prometheus Books, 2003).
– First-hand accounts of coercive religious re-education and moral policing in Islamist regimes.Hanson, Victor Davis. The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America (2021).
– Contemporary analysis linking ideological utopianism with erosion of civic identity and accountability.Sowell, Thomas. Intellectuals and Society (2011).
– Examines how abstract ideological visions detach from empirical outcomes—a key intellectual underpinning of the “architectural rendering” metaphor.
AI, Visual Culture, and Ideological Simulation
Crawford, Kate. Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence (2021).
– Discusses AI as an instrument of power and ideological reflection rather than neutrality.Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media (2001).
– Framework for interpreting digital imagery as narrative propaganda and sociopolitical “renderings.”Harbaugh, D.F. “The AI Truth Engine and the Destruction vs. Flourishing Scale” (Hardball Intelligence Systems Whitepaper, 2025).
– A framework for evaluating ideological systems based on outcome-based empirical flourishing rather than intent.OpenAI, DALL·E 3 System Card (2024).
– Official documentation outlining generative AI’s visual ethics, bias controls, and political neutrality constraints.Stanford Internet Observatory, Generative AI and the Weaponization of Perception (2024).
– Research into AI-generated propaganda, visual manipulation, and ideological conditioning through synthetic imagery.
Historical Parallels and Contemporary Commentary
Applebaum, Anne. Gulag: A History (2003).
– A comprehensive study of Soviet re-education and social engineering.Weiss, Bari. “The New Puritans.” Common Sense Substack (2021).
– Discusses social-media-driven “digital struggle sessions” as modern analogs of Maoist public denunciations.Harbaugh, D.F. “Weaponizing AI Hallucinations: What JFK Jr.’s Death Can Teach America” (Substack, 2025).
– Explores AI image generation as a tool of ideological reflection and counter-propaganda.
Suggested Citation Format
Harbaugh, D.F. “See Your Future NYC: Call It an Architect’s Rendering.” Hardball Intelligence Systems (Substack), 2025.
Supplementary visual material generated via OpenAI’s GPT-5 (DALL·E-3) and Google AI Studio.