User:Laurier Rochon/notes/proposalv0.3

TL;DR;

I propose to conceptualize, design and build a physical artifact imbued with technological properties and human-like agency. This artifact's form should reference the concept of the technological "black box", would comprise of no inputs, and a few simple outputs.

Purpose : to capture internet packets and store them for later use. To this end, my device will try to connect to open wireless networks in its vicinity or illegally infiltrate WEP and WPA networks and record their traffic. Whatever it captures will be stored on a USB key for potential later use. To give a clear indication of what the device is currently doing, a small 16x2 LED screen would teletype the current course of action (ex : "Scraping packets from SSID Blalala")

Outputs : I would like my device's outputs 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, layered atop of a light a jazz ballad, 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?"). This would be audible only by putting earphones on, creating a personal, one-to-one relationship between the user and a seemingly inert black box. This machine would be seemingly capable of feeling guilt or remorse and this trait would shine through its internal monologue.

Why : I wish to capture the self-reflective essence of large-scale governing bodies. They are huge systems which have histories, ideologies and limits - massive beasts which strangely resemble humans. 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, 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 I wish to address in my project.

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.

Another important element to mention while discussing past "work" is the fact that I've spent many years working in commercial settings, building internet architecture and software for private interests. Therefore, I'm in a good position to understand the logic behind their decisions, and type of behavior can possibly be expected from such an industry. I understand rather well how the Internet startup scene is built, why and how large software companies became very successful, etc. I expect this to be asset while conceiving and contextualizing my work.

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 inflicts.

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.

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.

To have my device actually connecting and listening on networks, I plan to flash the firmware of a router (I am already working on one, and have ordered a second one) 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 (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++, apache, arduino 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 that I will have a waveshield mounted on top of an ethernet shield, mounted on an arduino shield. Doable? Let's hope so.

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.

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 somewhat mirror some of the bad decisions taken by governments in my project, perhaps I will be doing it in a slightly more 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.

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 really 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".

Referenced Work

Bibliography

Works

Vincent Mosco ("The Digital sublime")
Brian Arthur ("The Nature of Technology")
Charles Dickens ("Tale of two cities")
Howard Rheingold ("Smart mobs")
Lawrence Lessig ("code v2")
Tim Wu ("Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination")
Goldsmith ("Who controls the net")
Benkler ("The wealth of networks")
Zittrain ("The generative internet")
John Perry
Neal Stephenson ("Anathem", "In the beginning was the command line")
David Lyon
William Gibson
John Perry Barlow
David Shenk
Michael Geist
Nudge (Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) (Steve's rec.)
The Net Delusion (Evgeny Morozov) (Steve's rec.)

Tech