User:Laurier Rochon/notes/proposalv0.3

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Summary

I propose to conceptualize, design and build a black box imbued with technological properties and human-like agency. This artifact would perform questionable moral activities and engage in a monologue with itself, reflecting on the nature of its activities. This box would comprise of no inputs, a simple audio output.

  • Purpose : to broadcast a wireless internet access point open to all and capture/store the packets flowing through it for later use.
  • Output : I would like my device's output to display a salient sense of human sensitivity, in many ways similar to Hal, the computer featured in the movie 2001: A Space Oddyssey. One way of doing this would involve the voice of a computer, describing step by step its current actions and emotional state (ex: "I'm stealing packets now. I'm not sure this is a good idea, what do you think?"). Audible only by putting earphones on, a closed tunnel between the user and the piece would be created. This machine would show signs of guilt and remorse - reflected through its internal monologue. Although questions would be asked to the person listening, there are no actual controls offered by the artifact - rendering these questions purely rhetorical.
  • Why : I wish to capture the self-reflective reasoning internet technology control structures. They exert a particular sense of self-consciousness that I wish to distill. These mammoth systems have histories, ideologies, strengths and limits which resemble humans in many ways. Governments need to negotiate with other states - exactly the same way people do. They possess, create and manage self-confidence, they set thresholds and checkpoints for success and failure, they sometimes break down - all in similar ways that humans do. It is their capacity to grow powerful and autonomous which creates self-referential agency, that which I address with this project. The interaction between the work of machines, the intentions of humans and the consciousness that might arise from their entanglement is what interests me.


Previous Work

In the past year, I have made 3 projects. The first was a grumpy chat program that interfered with the normal flow of a conversation, the second one a subscription-based soap opera newsletter inspired by daily news reports, and the last one, an encryption/decryption algorithm that protected your message from scrutiny, but revelaed your intentions of communicating under the radar.

My main concern while making these works was to highlight the mediation power held by technologies. Some works did this more literally than others, but my goal was often to try and make visible certain characteristics of technology that make us believe that it could be apolitical, agnostic to influence or simply objective. If there is anything inherent at all to Internet technology, I believe it to be its immunity to complete objectivity from social, political, economical and legislative pressures. In addition to this subjectivity I attempted to reveal, the works I've produced cast cyberspace in a particular light in terms of its constitution - I believe it to be a highly narrative, open-ended space with different norms, rules and affordances.


Project Outline, Methods & Approach

Outline

To recap, the system I intend on designing has 2 main characteristics : the first one is that its only function is to execute a morally questionable action and "knows" it very well. The architecture of this system allows for a single, unambiguous use of it. This use would repeat itself over and over and over regardless of the "damage" it is capable of inflicting.

The second characteristic of this system would be its capability of showing signs of human sensitivity. Remorse or guilt, for example. After performing this morally questionable action, it would give the impression of perhaps feeling remorse, communicate to the user that it is sorry for the damage caused (perhaps even promise to never do it again), and then carry on repeating itself immediately.

In brief, a system that was designed purposefully to cause harm, purposefully express remorse and demand to be excused for its actions, then deliberately repeats these actions in an infinite loop. The precedents set by the previously executed actions could serve as justification for current decisions being taken.


Example of a hypothetical narrative

[work in progress]

(robotic voice)

  • Hey you.
  • Guess what?
  • I'm stealing packets.
  • Yes. Stealing packets.
  • When people surf, they send packets.
  • I capture them.
  • It's fun and useful.
  • I can use them for many things.
  • Do they know?
  • I don't think so.
  • Do you think so?
  • I'm telling you, but just you.
  • Don't tell anyone.
  • It's a secret between you and me.
  • Okay?
  • You are not responding. Does that mean you think it's not okay?
  • I'm not sure what you mean.
  • Let me make this clear, there's nothing wrong with stealing a few packets here and there right?
  • Well, I'm stealing them all, but it's not really stealing.
  • You know, now really like stealing a car, or your wife.
  • That hurts and disappoints.
  • My steals are not even noticed.
  • But then if people find out maybe they would be hurt.
  • [silence]
  • I don't think they would be hurt.
  • Maybe they would be hurt.
  • I don't know.
  • Do you think it's bad I steal people's packets?
  • Maybe I shouldn't.
  • But it's fun to steal packets.
  • But it's not fun for others, maybe.
  • Ok, I can stop stealing them maybe.
  • I'm really sorry I have stolen packets.
  • Maybe some of them were yours.
  • I hope I didn't hurt you.
  • Are you hurt?
  • I really didn't mean to hurt you.
  • I'm so sorry.
  • I promise I won't do it again.
  • Never will I steal packets again.
  • I hope you will forgive me for hurting you.
  • I hope some day I can make it up to you.
  • You must be angry.
  • I'm so very sorry.
  • [silence]


Methods

  • To create the sense of technological alienation ("the black box"), I will need to build a physical object in a very precise manner. By using materials that reference "modern technology" (ex: glass, acrylic plastic, etc.), this effect should be achievable. It is important to make clear that this object has no control mechanism inherent to it, that the consciousness which sustains itself "inside" the black box is inaccessible and sealed off from external influence.
  • To have my device actually connecting and listening on networks, I plan to flash the firmware of a router to install a custom distribution of Linux (openWRT or DD-WRT). This will enable me to install custom software to sniff and record packets from various wireless networks (tcpdump, wireless-tools). As these routers have only volatile memory (RAM), I will be using either A) a router with a USB port to stock the data from the network interface to a USB stick B) a combination of an Arduino board + Ethernet shield augmented with a microSD card, wired in with an RJ-45 cable directly in the router to stock my data. These steps this will involve, at least, the following technologies : bash, linux, openwrt/dd-wrt, packet filtering, C/C++, arduino-specific libraries.
  • To generate the audio, I'm hoping to use the space from the microSD card to stock different samples which can be played back from the Arduino board, with the help of a wave shield. This means I will have a waveshield mounted on top of an ethernet shield, mounted on an Arduino (hypothetical).


Tests + Proof of concept


Objectives

Of course I'm hoping to attain all the goals mentioned in the previous sections, but I believe it important to note that I have created this challenge for myself to, at least in part, fulfill my desire to learn more about low-level electronics, software and hardware development. I also feel like I lack some of the foundational knowledge that drives the deeper layers of the internet protocols and its surrounding technologies (TCP/IP, DHCP, network interfaces, UDP, etc.), and this type of project would certainly force me to understand them very well. From a more qualitative standpoint, I would like my work to possess the following properties which I found important in other inspiring projects listed below :

  • Box : Extremely simple to interact with
  • Box : Complex inner workings
  • Voice : calm and collected, easy to understand
  • Voice : building a compelling narrative structure


Theoretical research

When I started on this endeavor, I wanted to make a project about regulation, government and industry. As things evolved, my project has naturally taken a much more philosophical, ethical and artistic turn - I think for the best! Although I still have the desire to impersonate governments' voices with this project, perhaps I will be doing it in a metaphorical manner. The central concern is about creating a compelling narrative growing out of this black box for the viewer to appreciate, and hopefully put forward the inherent contradictions of self-referential, self-validating and closed-loop systems (both function and metaphysical).

Conversely, I believe the machine I am trying to construct can be a vibrant comparison to other self-referential systems, whether governmental or not (and I think this door should be left open). By revealing a political reasoning that references itself, a loop akin to simulation is created - as there is no originality involved and such a system simply gets deeper into "itself". This self-reflection creates self-validation and it is at this particular level of consciousness that I wish to bring my "device".

From an artistic and historical standpoint, I would be following in the lineage of a long-standing tradition to make simple, geometric, elegant objects. Be it from the period of minimalism (Judd), conceptual art (Lewitt) or another period in time, simple-formed objects have graced gallery spaces for as long as these spaces have existed. I find it a compelling challenge and an interesting perspective that is to create my own copy of something everyone has already made. To leverage the existing history of these works while constructing a unique story to embed it with.


Referenced Work


Bibliography

Books

Have read

  • Lawrence Lessig ("code v2")
  • Neal Stephenson ("In the beginning was the command line")

Must read

  • Benkler ("The wealth of networks")
  • Zittrain ("The generative internet")
  • Nudge (Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein)
  • The Net Delusion (Evgeny Morozov)

Could be useful

  • Brian Arthur ("The Nature of Technology")
  • Charles Dickens ("Tale of two cities")
  • Howard Rheingold ("Smart mobs")
  • Tim Wu ("Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination")
  • Goldsmith ("Who controls the net")
  • Vincent Mosco ("The Digital sublime")
  • Neal Stephenson ("Anathem")
  • John Perry
  • David Lyon
  • William Gibson
  • John Perry Barlow
  • David Shenk
  • Michael Geist
  • Kant After Duchamp

Tech notes

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