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?