The internets of the present, and the internets yet to come
This week, we look at the multiplicity of networks that make up what we think of as the global internet, as well as various possibilities for a better future version of the internet. Also, jewelry that stores your biometric data, the age of virtual celebrities, and more.
— Alexis & Matt
1: Three essays on the future of the Internet
We’re not going to claim credit or anything, but there has been a significant uptick in thought pieces regarding the future of the Internet and how we may make it a better place to be. Three big ones hit the web in the last two weeks by Tim Berners-Lee, Annalee Newitz, and Ethan Zuckerman.
Berners-Lee’s ideas take the form of a site called “Contract for the Web”, which sets out three principles for each of three groups (individuals, governments, and corporations). These goals are of the form “develop technologies that support the best in humanity and challenge the worst” or “build strong online communities where everyone feels safe and welcome” — simple statements that much of the tech industry has been struggling to achieve for decades. So, “yes, but how” was our response to this take.
Newitz argues for more people and fewer algorithms, leading to a “Slow Web” of moderation and consideration. This idea has also gotten some traction in Robin Sloan’s short story “Rosegarden”, presented as posts in a fictional social network. Newitz’s op-ed also mirrors research into self-reported values users see in news apps and experiences: namely, a value on personal curation and not algorithmic matching. Of the three this seemed both the most grounded in current reality and most likely to be achieved to positive effect.
Zuckerman goes further, positing that the underlying profit motive of social media is the issue, and that a publicly-funded social media platform would be the solution. While there is some historical precedent — Zuckerman cites the BBC as a successful public-service corporation — some of his arguments aren’t fully fleshed out, and are often of the form “people would be healthier if only they ate more vegetables.”
While we certainly don’t have the answers to these questions, we’re encouraged to see the debate become more visible, and that it incorporates many different directions. Fundamentally, the question is whether a set of rules — whether mandated or self-regulated — can address the issue from the top down, or if different models and interactions can be piloted and tested from the ground up.
A Better Internet Is Waiting for Us
My quest to imagine a different reality.
2: Deepfakes for good
Ethical Futures Lab was created partly in response to the lack of nuance in current conversations about emerging technology, which has largely placed technologists on one side making the tech we live with and critics on the other side pointing out the ethical issues with it. We want to encourage more constructive conversations about real strategies and techniques for makers: how we can create thoughtfully and ethically. Which is why we were delighted when Aviv Ovadya shared this essay with us. In it, he lays out a number of tactics for how deep fake technology can be used for good, and ways to protect it from malicious applications. Those approaches include watermarking to disclose when media has been synthesized, requiring voice-verified consent from subjects, and building in constraints on usage. He also puts forth a set of actions and principles for journalists, regulators, and the public to help ensure the ethical growth of a technology that has very clear potential for abuse.
Making deepfake tools doesn’t have to be irresponsible. Here’s how.
It’s possible to limit the harm synthetic media tools might cause—but it won’t happen without effort.
www.technologyreview.com • Share
3: The internet contains multitudes
When we talk about the internet, we tend to talk about the “free” internet versus “closed” splinternets, often epitomized by the U.S. on one hand and China on the other. Many of us have an image in our heads of a global, interconnected web that operates the same across the “free world” and is locked down and censored in only a handful of dictatorial countries. The Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity recently ran an analysis to help us talk about the state of the internet in a more data-informed and nuanced way. They analyzed four different layers of the network, from the types of IP addresses being used all the way to the human level of data laws and governance.
What the CLTC study found is that the reality is much more complex, that “the Internet is multi-polar, with different Internet governance decisions producing diverse types of fragmentation.” Countries one would expect to have very different profiles, like Norway and Saudi Arabia, actually share surprising similarities in the character of their internets. This work could enable tracking changes in the global internets over time, a better understanding of interoperability across nations, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to see and discuss the shape of these networks in a more detailed and effective manner.
Internet Fragmentation: Beyond “free” and “closed”
Governments, firms, and citizens are again debating to what extent the Internet is, or should be, a global infrastructure for communication and commerce.
4: Simpler than plastic surgery
Kaspersky has published a bit of speculative engineering that posits a biometric signature that can be replaced as easily as changing your password. Using rubber and a mesh of conductive fibers, they’ve worked with a “design professional” to create a ring that stores an artificial fingerprint that can be read by most commercial sensors. The upshot is that it can be used as a Touch ID or similar credential, but should that fingerprint data become compromised, the user can replace the ring and remove the offending “fingerprint” from their account.
The company is clear that this device is a concept and not for sale. The intent was to raise awareness of security issues and biometric data and encourage manufacturers to “build with security in mind”, and not require additional steps or clever hacks on the part of individual users. That said, until such systems achieve an ideal, perfectly-secure state, expect users to find some solace in concepts like this ring that allow interactions with biometric systems without the risk of corrupting irrevocable or irreplaceable personal information.
Kaspersky has created a concept, in collaboration with a design professional, to show how we can avoid the security risks of biometric authentication, while retaining its convenience.
5: Bot anthropology
We’ve long been fascinated by the nuances of how humans and machines engage with each other, from the hacks we use to circumvent new technologies to the symbiotic creative relationships we might develop with machine intelligences. How do computers and humans co-evolve, each shaping and changing the other along the way?
Along those lines, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have been studying all 1,601 of Wikipedia’s bots in order to understand how human users and machine intelligences work together to expand the world’s largest digital encyclopedia. Wikipedia bots account for up to 10% of all activity on the site and are designed to help with the growth and maintenance of the platform, performing tasks like fixing broken content, linking related pages, policing bad behavior, and more. The researchers classified all of these bots into nine core functions, including roles like “fixers”, “connectors”, “protectors”, and “advisors”. The study’s findings look at the way that bots evolve on the platform as well as how they affect user behavior:
“Nickerson and his team found that new Wikipedia users who interacted with advisor- and protector-bots were significantly more likely to become long-term contributors than those greeted by humans. That remained true even when the bots were contacting users to point out errors or delete their contributions, as long as the bots were cordial and clear about their reasons.”
Rise of the bots: Team completes first census of Wikipedia bots
Researchers have completed the first analysis of all 1,601 of Wikipedia’s bots.
6: Virtual celebrities don't demand better contracts
It’s been a trope in sci-fi for ages, perhaps most recently and vividly in Blade Runner 2049: a virtual celebrity persona that is entirely generated and not at all a biological person. Turns out Instagram was way ahead of us.
This piece in the FT describes a small cadre of such generated celebrities, each designed for a different set of interactions. From virtual fashion models to virtual pop stars to virtual “influencers” (yes, really) these celebrities garner follower counts in the millions, actual real-life fans, and significant endorsement deals. While much of the piece focuses on what it means to be a fan of a fake person (as though no one ever wore a Bart Simpson t-shirt or went to a Star Trek convention) we found the most interesting topic getting short shrift. Specifically, if you can create a celebrity out of thin air and make them say whatever you want whenever it’s required, what do we do with the human ones? Virtual celebrities are easier to create, maintain, and change than real ones, and don’t have any messy human needs or demands to manage. We’ve talked a lot about automation when it comes to more rote labor, but many of the same concerns may be coming for the entertainment industry as well.
Welcome to the age of the avatar
They have millions of fans and big endorsements, but there’s a twist — these ‘virtual celebrities’ don’t actually exist.
One snowy thing: Walking in a winter wonder-LED
Ghosts Made of Snow and LED lights. https://t.co/K3EObIuRQT
Six Signals: Emerging futures, 6 links at a time.
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