plantorium

Surveillance: "Technological progress in the last few decades have made monitoring, tracking and profiling techniques easier, cheaper and more accurate. As a result, surveillance has increased in both the public sector (...) and in the private sector (...). These practices can profoundly affect how individuals think and act, as well as other personal rights (such as freedom of expression or association). Any form of surveillance is an intrusion on the fundamental rights to the protection of personal data and to the right to privacy. It must be provided for by law and be necessary and proportionate." More about European Data Protection Supervisor in EU. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

 

2021 11 14 note: See comments on rights conceded by Portuguese law in  https://www.panelfit.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Portugal.pdf

Fevereiro

Fui uma grande entusiasta, no final do século XX e no início do século XXI, de diversas ferramentas, tecnologias e produtos com base na internet. «Gastei» horas infidáveis a pesquisar, a observar, a experimentar, a ler, a aprender e a difundir diversas tecnologias que permitiam aproximar-nos e colaborar com quem estava longe, mas também com quem estava próximo. Para lá do tempo, investi outros recursos pessoais para os explorar, como diversos artefactos, comunicações e dados. Muitas das tecnologias foram sendo discontinuadas e levando com elas todo o investimento feito. Mas apesar dessas perdas, mantinha-me sempre animada para recomeçar a experimentar uma nova tecnologia e voltava a investir mais recursos. Cheguei a dar formação no Laboratório em que trabalhava (foto acima), noutras instituições e associações de profissionais, para que mais pessoas pudessem incorporar aquelas ferramentas em contexto de trabalho, tal como a utilização de blogs no contexto organizacional. 

Em 2021, é difícil ignorar a informação que alerta para outros custos muito elevados, mas menos visíveis, na utilização de muitos serviços, produtos ou apps, que assentam na internet, e cujo uso se intensificou. Entre os elevados custos, encontramos o roubo de dados e informação pessoal existentes nos nossos artefactos de informação (portáteis, laptop, telefones, sensores corporais, etc.) através de pishing, malware, trojans, etc, mas também através de utilização abusiva e desporporcional dos nossos dados e informações pessoais, por exemplo para podermos utilizar um equipamento que comprámos ou até para consulta de um mero site de notícias, em que somos obrigandos a prescindir de direitos fundamentais, como o direito à privacidade. 

A voracidade e insaciabilidade destes «novos modelos de negócio», alimentados pela nossa informação pessoal e a rastreabilidade dos nossos comportamentos do quotidiano (dentro e fora do espaço internet) e dos restantes equipamentos que fazem parte da nossa ecologia informacional, passou a ser matéria prima para que diversas empresas produzam outros produtos e serviços e os vendam a quem esteja interessado neles e tenha o dinheiro ou poder para os adquirir. Shoshana Zuboff, em The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019), apresenta uma descrição e caracterização arrepiante do que está a ser feito, com base numa extensa lista de referências académicas, jornalisticas e conversacionais, que não é possível ignorar após leitura.

Não quero (nem gosto) que os meus dados e a minha informação pessoal (que só a mim devem pertencer), aquela que escolho não partilhar de forma pública, sejam utilizados para quaisquer fins que não aqueles que explicitamente e de forma informada fizer, muito menos para serem utilizados para manipular os meus comportamentos (ou os das pessoas de quem gosto ou com quem possa interagir), por exemplo, mostrando apenas informação que achem (ou que os algoritmos achem) que eu devo ter acesso ou vendendo informação pessoal e privada minha a terceiros para que façam o que lhes apetecer com eles, por exemplo, devassarem a minha vida privada. Não posso pactuar com estes modelos a que chamam de negócio nem com os princípios de atuação. Estas práticas ultrapassam todos os limites do aceitável. Nenhum produto, por tão bom que seja, vale o direito à nossa privacidade e o direito de escolher os pedaços de vida que partilhamos com aqueles que, a cada instante, de forma livre sem coersão, escolhemos partilhar. A tecnologia não obriga a que seja assim. As pessoas que desenham essas tecnologias é que fazem com que seja obrigatória.

Por ora, só posso fazer o que tenho ao meu alcance, ainda que represente perdas e custos de diversa ordem, mas estou de forma progressiva a recusar aceder a páginas que me obriguem a aceitar a perda de direitos básicos, de forma desporporcionada para o benefício que possa ter e gradualmente estou a deixar de utilizar outros espaços que eram de encontro com amigos e outras pessoas que gostava de ir acompanhando, mas que me obriguem a abdicar destes direitos fundamentais. Dei início a esta marcha o ano passado com o Facebook (deixando de utilizar, mas com dificuldade em eliminar o que lá está, dadas as políticas que têm em vigor). Recentemente desinstalei o browser que vinha usando, não tendo a certeza de ter conseguido remover todas as suas componentes. 

Tomei também a resolução de deixar de recomendar, na esfera profissional e privada, todos os produtos/serviços/instituições que, mesmo que sejam muito interessantes/úteis/etc, enveredem pelas mesmas práticas lesivas de direitos fundamentais e de forma abusiva, previligiando aqueles que ofereçam opções de utilização que não sejam lesivas nem façam abdicar de direitos fundamentais consagrados, pelo menos em Portugal e na União Europeia.

Quero acreditar, que o Blogger e o Blogspot continuam a oferecer condições de utilização mutuamente benéficas, dentro de limites razoáveis, para que possa continuar a investir o meu tempo e outros recursos na criação de conteúdos de acesso livre, sem retorno para os meus investimentos, a não ser poder partilhar o que escolho, de forma livre e voluntária e cujo acesso torno público.

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

2021 11 14 note: See comments on rights conceded by Portuguese law in  https://www.panelfit.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Portugal.pdf

This is not the Wild West

 

“[I]n Europe the internet has long since ceased to be the wild west. Articles 7 and 8 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights [legal text] safeguard the right to respect for private and family life and the right to protection of personal data. These basic rights do not just exist on paper. As you have seen, they also guide us when legislating. And they have teeth, also in the courts. For example, you need only recall the two Schrems judgments, in which European Court of Justice declared instruments for transferring personal data to third countries to be unlawful. The result is that digital companies must guarantee EU standards are applied when they transfer personal data outside the EU. Failing this, forwarding of the data is prohibited.” Open letter from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

We have the right to privacy and protection of personal information, among other legal rights. Using, selling, trading and all other forms of exploitation of personal data and information is illegal and a crime against our lifes.

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC). 

2021 11 14 note: See comments on rights conceded by Portuguese law in  https://www.panelfit.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Portugal.pdf

January

“Our ways of thinking and the paths we take in life are hard to fathom, much less forecast using a reductive formula”, like an algorithm. "Listening helps you understand people’s mind-sets and motivations, which is essential in building cooperative and productive relationships as well as knowing which relationships you’re better avoiding.” Kate Murphy (2020). You’re Not Listening. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

January

“Intimacy, innovative thinking, teamwork, and humor all come to those who free themselves from the need to control the narrative and have the patience and confidence to follow the story wherever it leads.” Kate Murphy (2020). You’re Not Listening. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

January

 Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

January

"Amidst global inequality and ecological crises, it is questionable whether the virtuous circle of the welfare states is in fact virtuous. (...) I identify three caveats of the policy idea and illustrate how the traditional virtuous circle is actually embedded in a vicious circle of ecological collapse. (...) [1] the belief in cumulative economic growth as beneficial for human wellbeing has proved to be outdated. (...) [2] social goals including human wellbeing and equality became (at least implicitly) suppressed by GDP growth. (...) [3] The policy idea of a virtuous circle established a compromise between social and financial goals without paying attention to the negative environmental consequences of economic growth." Tuuli Hirvilammi (2020). The Virtuous Circle of Sustainable Welfare as a Transformative Policy Idea. Sustainability vol. 12, 391.

January

«If you are aware of a state you call is, or reality, or life, this implies a different state called isn't. Human consciousness is at the same time as being a form of awareness, sensitivity, and understanding, it's also a form of ignorance. The ordinary, everyday consciousness we have, leaves out more than it takes in. And because of this, it leaves out things that are terribly important. (...) The question that is absolutely basic for all human beings is: what have we left out?» Man of No Ego (2015). Slowing Down. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

December

The Secret Random Acts of Kindness Society 

Purpose: Increase kindness and wellbeing in the planet, doing little (or bigger) things, according to member´s availabilities, that can positively impact other Terrestrial lives. 

Rules: Each act of kindness should be as natural as possible. No photos. No names. Just do it and go back to whatever it was you were doing with your life. As natural as your skin. Kindness acts can be planned and include resources belonging to different members as long as they remain anonymous. 

Members & Membership: All religions, cultures, and ages in any part of the Planet. Membership starts when members start doing random acts of kindness. 

Meeting places: Members can convene anywhere in the Planet with other members, face to face only, in order to share experiences between them, and address future acts of kindness needs. No photos and no digital minutes of the gathering are allowed. 

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

December

“(…) she no longer felt she was there simply to serve the dreams of other people. She no longer felt like she had to find sole fulfilment as some imaginary perfect daughter or sister or partner or wife or mother or employee or anything other than a human being, orbiting her own purpose, and answerable to herself. (…) she was alive, when she had so nearly been dead.” Matt Haig (2020). The Midnight Library. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Underland

“We find speaking of the Anthropocene, even in Anthropocene, difficult. It is, perhaps, best imagined as an epoch of loss – of species, of places and people – for which we are seeking a language of grief and, even harder to find, a language of hope.” Robert Macfarlane (2019). Underland: a deep journey. 

Photo of tapestry (81 x 90 cm) by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2020.

December

“If the composition of the air we breath depends on living beings, the atmosphere is no longer simply the environment in which living beings are located and in which they evolve; it is, in part, a result of their actions. In other words, there are not organisms on one side and the environment on the other, but a co-production by both. Agencies are redistributed.” Bruno Latour (2020). Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

December

“Buddhism. Stoicism. Epicureanism. Christianity. Hinduism. It’s all but impossible to find a philosophical school or religion that does not venerate the inner peace – this stillness – as the highest good and as the key to elite performance and a happy life. (…) The gift of free will is that in this life we can choose to be good or we can choose to be bad. We can choose what standards to hold ourselves to and what we will regard as important, honorable, and admirable.” Ryan Holiday (2019). Stillness is the Key. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

November

I have been hacked. Still trying to figure out the extension and number of hacked accounts. 

I have changed my passwords a couple of times, but still things are happening. I lost access to my previous blogs (namely B2OB, Blogtese), and the capacity to change settings in other accounts that where connected to an email account that I stopped using almost 10 years ago. That account was compromised and someone as been subscribing things with my personal data through that account. Other accounts that I created a long time ago, connected to that email, are also compromised, like flickr where I tried to change my email and it sends me to an error page. If you receive anything you consider unusual through my channels, it might be because it's not me. Hope you know me well enough to figure it out.

The hacking was gradual and it might take some time to get to now the extension of it all. Because we have everything so connected to our emails and phone that it becomes unpredictable and easy to exploit by people whose aim is to do harm.

And yes, I use anti-virus and I do not click is ads and I even stop reading journals, news and other informative site (like public national TV online!) because they make me loose the right to my privacy and install an «army» of data collection cookies on my artefacts.

So, if you know me, you know how to contact me if you want to. 

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

November

 My computer does not allow me to uninstall Xbox Network and it connects by itself. Microsoft does not let users decide what games they want to play and when? I don´t want to play this game and I don´t want to have it in this computer. 

Systemic risks

"The first generation of AI-enabled offensive tools is already emerging and there is growing evidence of AI being used by attackers. Deep fakes have already been leveraged to create new cyberattack vectors and voice-mimicking software has been used in major thefts." in Cybersecurity, emergingtechnology and systemic risk (2020) by World Economic Forum in collaboration with the University of Oxford. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Cyber criminals

"Attackers will often use a tool called a ‘web inject’ to monitor the internet browsing of an infected user. When the victim attempts to access their normal internet banking platform, the malware will serve up a fake web page that looks exactly like their real online banking web page. It will steal the victim’s login details and password, and trick the user into entering their token authentication, or SMS authentication, so that the attacker can quickly replicate the process on the genuine web page in order to get access to (and steal from) the account." in Cyber crime: understanding the online business model, by Matt Carey Head of London Operations Team, NCSC. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

November

IP 89.40.182.187

November

September

"Stillness presents a break or pause in the flow of habitual events, whilst illuminating temporal gaps and fissures within which alternative, even unexpected possibilities - for life - might emerge. (...) Here, stillness offers the simultaneous possibility of termination and also of a new beginning." Emma Cocker (2011). Performing stillness: community in waiting. in Stillness in a Mobile World, edited by David Bissell and Gillian Fuller. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

August

"The stories illustrate that biodiversity, climate and inequality are inseparable agendas. (...) The biodiversity community needs to move beyond the technocratic approaches that currently dominate ways of thinking about the future (...). This means that researchers have to acknowledge that imagining the future, whether in a model or a story, is political" Wyborn, C., Davila, F., Pereira, L. et al. Imagining transformative biodiversity futures. Nature Sustainability, number 8, volume 3. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

June

"A certain conception of «nature» has allowed the Moderns to occupy the Earth in such a way that it forbids others to occupy their own territories differently. (...) The current situation (...) is not simply a matter of economics but rather of civilization itself. (...) The new conflicts do not replace the old; they sharpen them, deploy them differently, and above all they finally make them identifiable." Bruno Latour (2020). Down to Earth: Politics in the new Climatic Regime. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

June

Resilience "is a passive process, implying the ability to absorb blows and get back up. Regeneration, on the other hand is active: we become full participants in the process of maximazing life's creativity." Noami Klein, 2015. This Changes Everything. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

June

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

“The information society is like a tree that has been growing its far-reaching branches much more widely, hastily, and chaotically than its conceptual, ethical, and cultural roots. (…) The risk is that, like a tree with week roots, further and healthier growth at the top might be impaired by a fragile foundation at the bottom.” Luciano Floridi (2010). Information: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

“Growing our connections to nature will allow us to push past mere intellect to embrace sensory experiences, emotions, intuition. (…) For the first time, a large body of research is illuminating the fact that our world arises from a sprawling, highly dynamic set of rhythms and relationships. (…) An especially intriguing aspect of this scientific shift – of this effort to break science out of the intellectual boxes we built for it – is the effort by some to merge traditional science with indigenous wisdom.” Gary Ferguson, 2019. Eight Master Lessons of Nature. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

“(…) whenever suitable conditions to move demand and supply closer can be identified by reducing the number of technological and human intermediaries and intermediations, a series of effective possibilities emerge to reduce the amount of non-renewable energy inputs via increasing the quality of technology outputs and their social usefulness.” Transforming innovation for decarbonisation? Insights from combining complex systems and social practice perspectives. Nicola Labanca et al (2020). Energy Research & Social Science, vol. 65, 101452. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

 

 «The new Earth 2.0 that will emerge after COVID‑19 will be a “new normal”, but many fundamental challenges will still exist. Chief among them is the imperative to collectively work towards an effective and inclusive energy transition. (…) The era of compounded disruptions is a litmus test for the energy transition, asserting the importance of the twin objectives of robustness and resilience.» WEF (2020). Fostering Effective Energy Transition. Italics added. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

(re)growth

 

Define growth: the process of increasing in size. the upward growth of plants. the process of developing physically, mentally, or spiritually. the process of increasing in amount, value, or importance. Similar to growth: development, germination, flourishing, thriving, expansion, progress, advancement, headway, improvement, furtherance, rise, success, blooming, upturn, upswing. (as defined by Google search). Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

mobility

 Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

“We are nature. When we stand firm on that undeniable fact, shedding the long-standing illusion that there’s nature “out there” and then there’s us “in here”, we’ll be able to see in a new light some of our most troubling, persistent problems. (…) It really is possible to mend our relationship to the world around us and, through that mending, release an intelligence millions of years in the making.” Gary Ferguson, 2019. Eight Master Lessons of Nature. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

“Expectation, fantasy and reality are intermingled on the surface of our skin, a stage on which our life is played out. (…) Touch is exquisitely sensitive. It is emotional. It influences our thinking and sense of self. But it is also indescribable.” Monty Lyman (2020). The Remarkable Life of the Skin. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

"In categorical thinking the boundaries are drawn. But mystery is open-ended, messy, full of promise, and lacking in certainty. (...) What if we could free ourselves from the confines of certainty - to learn to dance with the fact that reality zigs and zags across shifting ground? (...) The effect is to create a fresh canvas onto which entirely new, more relational ways of thinking can be painted." Gary Ferguson, 2019. Eight Master Lessons of Nature. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

April

"Given enough solitude and enough time, the mind shifts into default mode and pans through connections that at first seem wholly random. It explores problems with a curiosity and openness we might never choose to entertain. But this randomness is crucial.” Michael Harris (2017). Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

April

“It is a matter of broadening the definitions of class by pursuing an exhaustive search for everything that makes subsistence possible. As a Terrestrial, what do you care most about? With whom can you live? Who depends on you for subsistence? Against whom are you going to have to fight? How can the importance of all these agents be ranked?” Bruno Latour (2020). Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).