Can machine fall in love?Data & Techno politics towards social-ecological justice

5th Graduate Student Monthly Sustainability SeminarCenter for Transdisciplinary and Sustainability Science, IPB UniversityBogor, 17th February 2020

Irendra Radjawali

100 Mio – 1,6 Mio Rupiah / Month130 Mio – 2,1 Bio Rupiah / Month

THE RISE OF DIGITAL BILLIONAIRES

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

INSTANT SOCIETY / SCREEN SOCIETY ! ➔ literacy rate 1 page in 15 days & only 1 out of 1000 Indonesians reads book regularly

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

The Fourth Industrial Revolution describes the exponential changes to the way we live, work and relate to one another due to the adoption of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Thingsand the Internet of Systems.

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Harari calls it “the rise of the useless class” and

ranks it as one of the most dire threats of the 21st

century. In a nutshell, as artificial intelligence gets

smarter, more humans are pushed out of the job

market. No one knows what to study at college,

because no one knows what skills learned at 20 will

be relevant at 40. Before you know it, billions of

people are useless, not through chance but by

definition.

PERPETUAL DISRUPTION [or DISTRACTION?]

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Sustainability means meeting our own needs without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet

their own needs. In addition to natural resources, we also

need social and economic resources. Sustainability is not

just environmental-ism. Embedded in most definitions of

sustainability we also find concerns for social equity and

economic development

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

"development which meets the needs of

the present without compromising the

ability of future generations to meet their

own needs".

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Sustainable Development

“the earth doesn’t belong to man, man belongs to earth. Humankind has not attributed to the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web wo do to ourselves. All things bound together, all things connect.

Chief Seattle, 1854

Introduction The Challenges Epistemic Injustice

Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Hutan seperti ibu kami yang memberikan kami makan dan udara untuk bernafas. Hutanmenjadi bagian hidup kami yang akan selalu kami jaga.

Apay Janggut – Suai Utik, Kalimantan Barat.

Introduction The Challenges Epistemic Injustice

Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Testimonial injustice is unfairness related to trusting

someone's word. An injustice of this kind occurs

when someone is ignored or not believed because

they are a woman, because they are black, or

broadly, because of their identity.

Hermeneutical injustice is, roughly speaking, injustice

related to how people interpret their experiences.

In the 1970s, the name "sexual harassment" was

introduced as a label for something that many people,

especially women, had experienced since time

immemorial. Imagine a woman who is sexually

harassed in the 1960s, before the concept was

introduced. She may have difficulty putting her

experience into words. The difficulty that she faces is

no accident. It is due to women's exclusion from full

participation in the shaping of the English language.

EPISTEMIC INJUSTICE

Introduction The Challenges Epistemic Injustice

Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Information Manipulation Intentional and

massive dissemination of false or biased

news for hostile political purposes

Disinformation The intentional

dissemination of information that is

wholly or partly false

Misinformation The unintentional

dissemination of information that is

wholly or partly false

Introduction The Challenges Information Manipulation

Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Arson : a person who intentionally starts a fire in order

to damage or destroy something [Cambridge

Dictionary]

"We found many accounts using #ArsonEmergency

were behaving 'suspiciously' compared to those using

#AustraliaFire and #BushfireAustralia” [Graham &

Keller, 2020]

Accounts peddling #ArsonEmergency carried out

activity similar to what we’ve witnessed in past

disinformation campaigns, such as the co-ordinated

behaviour of Russian trolls during the 2016 US

presidential election.“

Introduction The Challenges Information Manipulation

Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Pictures from 2018 of school-students set a

fire, spread in the internet [online social media]

during the 2020 Australia bush-fire – Viraling

#ArsonEmergency, Obscuring the impact of

climate change

Dexter's story was picked up by Twitter

accounts and Facebook groups that shared it

as "proof" that this summer's bushfires were

the result of criminal activity rather than an

environmental and meteorological phenomena.

It was a case of taking news out of its original

context and deploying it for other purposes.

Introduction The Challenges Information Manipulation

Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Some of the false information is simply shared in error in the

urgency of the moment. An image of Australia seemingly on

fire derived from compiled satellite data was shared by singer

Rihanna to her 95 million followers on Twitter. At a glance, it

looks like a satellite photo, but it is instead a graphical

representation of fires over time.

Introduction The Challenges Information Manipulation

Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Pres. Jair Bolsonaro, without evidence, has blamed NGOs

disgruntled at losing international Amazon funding. He

also accused state governors for not fighting the fires.

One ruralist even blamed ICMBio (Brazil’s national park

service) for setting the blazes, though she has since

been charged with setting fires in a protected area.

Conservationists put the blame squarely on Bolsonaro

and his deregulation and defunding of government

institutions, including IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental

enforcement agency, which used to regularly fight fires

and arrest perpetrators.

IBAMA claims that, though warned days in advance of

“A Day of Fire” in Pará state, it received no law

enforcement backup from federal or state authorities.

This allowed ruralists (radical agricultural advocates) in

Altamira and Novo Progresso to set hundreds of fires on

August 10-11, with little fear of fines or prosecution.

Introduction The Challenges Information Manipulation

Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

▪ Research “The political ecology of Kapuas River,

West Kalimantan, Indonesia”

▪ Partnering with University of Tanjungpura

Pontianak, Borneo Tribune Institute, Lembaga

Gemawan, Swandiri Institute, FAMKI (Forum

Aliansi Masyarakat Korban Investasi) – Sintang

▪ Developing Participatory Hydro Political Appraisal

[PHPA] – Action Research in 7 villages

▪ Community Research Group(CRG), River

Transect

Ketungau Hilir Meliau

Menua Sadap

Ambalau

Serawai

Tayan

Pontianak

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Concession Investment

based on land and forest

Size (Ha) Proportion (%)

Oil Palm 4.962.022,28 33 %

Logging Concession

2.808.902 19 %

Forest Estate 6.581.911 44 %

Mining Concession

5.074.338,81 34 %

Total 19.427.173,09 130 %

“Contested Space” in West Kalimantan

▪ “Virtual Land Grabbing”

▪ Disposession, Conflicts, …

▪ Law Abuse (i.e. Law No. 41 / 1999 on

Forestry)

▪ Land banking

▪ Rather in-transparent spatial planning

Administrative Size of West Kalimantan

Province: ~ 14 Mio Ha

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Customary Forest Mapping

▪ 5,000 Ha Customary Forest in Biak, Papua

▪ Cooperation with Local Community Groups

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

COUNTER MAPPINGWITH COMMUNITY DRONES

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Some people feel the rain, the others just get wet

TRAFFIC COUNTING

Introduction The Challenges Drone Counter Mapping Discussion

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Introduction The Challenges Drone Counter Mapping Discussion

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index / NDVI

Measuring plants’ stress level

33

PRECISION AGRICULTURE

Introduction The Challenges Drone Counter Mapping Discussion

▪ Identifying stress level of individual plants

▪ Anticipating the harvest failure

▪ Super-high resolution

▪ Low cost

PRECISION AGRICULTURE

Introduction The Challenges Drone Counter Mapping Discussion

THERMAL IMAGING

Introduction The Challenges Drone Counter Mapping Discussion

L’essentielle est invisible pour les yeux

The essential one is invisible for the eyes

„We map-makers must make a point of demolishing the illusion that there can be an official, universally accepted representation of the world’s political divisions“. (Rekacewicz2007: 226)

THE FUTURE OF CRITICAL [EMANCIPATORY] CARTOGRAPHY & COUNTER MAPPING

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Volume | Velocity | Variety | Veracity |

Variability | Viability | ValuePOLITICS OF BIG DATA & TECHNOLOGY

▪ Data Fetishism

▪ Data Ownership

▪ Data Acquisition – Data Analytics – Data Articulation

▪ Para Data

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí defines technopolitics as "political action, political communication, and – partly -political management, through technology." He means proximity technology, that of personal devices - mobile phones, computers, tablets -, an extraordinarily powerful, flexible, friendly and versatile technology, with fewer and fewer entry barriers and increasing potential.

Politics of technology [& data]

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

MACHINE LEARNING / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED

IMAGE CLASSIFICATION & ANALYTICS

ALGORITHM POLITICS

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

CUT & FILL CALCULATION

ALGORITHM POLITICS

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

IMAGE CLASSIFICATION

ALGORITHM POLITICS

Introduction The Challenges Drone Counter Mapping Discussion

Politics of knowledge [re]production

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Weapons of the weak vis-à-vis elite capture

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

Introduction The Challenges Data & Techno Politics Discussion

When machines are smarter than human [AI], count faster than human [calculator], more precise than human, then what is human?

Empathy, Creativity, Craziness, Love …

The ultimate sophistication is simplicity