KRAKEN. The Newest Technology in The Wrong Hands

Abstract

Political manipulation in democracy in current times appears as a critical threat to public life, being essentially related to the growing consumption of the mass media. Since this consumption is increasingly digital, big data analysis, algorithms and artificial intelligence start to challenge truth and trust - the pillars of our democratic society.

The Kraken’s software reports a probability of a near future in which, through the digitalization of the brain - pairing and transferring the mind, as a process where their reliable reproductions are kept - it will be possible to develop a database with the mind of every individual in society. It takes on a negative perspective of these technological advances since the mind is subject to different interpretations regarding the same matter, being fallible. It then portrays the opportunity to use this database of mind data to create false memories as a means of political manipulation in the future.

The project's main objective is to alert to possible consequences of the digitalization of the mind and, in general, of transhumanism, which can eventually be malicious and lead to the destruction of (our) humanity as we know it. In the speculative world in which the project is inserted, it is intended to denounce the possible disadvantages of digitizing the mind, raising questions around identity and consciousness.

technology, politics, manipulation, false memories, mind uploading, interaction design