HCPP22 | Gregor Žavcer - No (digital) self without privacy

In the digital age, everything in the physical world has its representation in the digital world, including ourselves. What happens to our digital self without privacy? The talk explores the notion of the digital self, the future ahead, and how decentralization can help. The talk will first present some views on the digital self and the extended mind from a cognitive science perspective. Building on this, questions will be raised about the digital self and how our personal data is part of our extended mind. In addition, questions will be raised about what happens to our autonomy when digital twins are created by others or when our extended mind becomes autonomous, i.e., what the digital does to our sense of self. In this context, it is argued that privacy is essential as a protection against the hacking of our minds – not only for surveillance reasons but also as a protection against the dopamine economy. The talk concludes with some ways that decentralization can work for individuals – or are we as developers sometimes just paving the road to hell with good intentions? ▲▲▲ Gregor is active in the Ethereum and decentralized storage space since 2015, started the Fair data society initiative, currently serving as Swarm Foundation’s director. ▲▲▲ Paralelní Polis is a one-­of-­a-­kind nonprofit organization that brings together art, social sciences, and modern technologies. The ideas of liberty, independence, innovative thinking, and the development of society are the main underlying foundations the whole project is built upon. The project intends to remain state-free as it operates entirely without support from the government, and most of the funds come from voluntary contributions of our donors and partly from commercial activities such as running a unique co­working space and the world’s first bitcoin-­only cafe. It was founded by members of a contemporary-­art group Ztohoven, and Slovak and Czech hacker­spaces. Its main goal is to promote economic, social, and digital freedom. We try to be a vocal voice of freedom in order to shape the public discourse, and ultimately work towards a freer future.