Digital Slavery Redemption | Evgeny Chereshnev | TEDxKazan

When George Orwell created his

masterpiece antiutopia,

I don't think he could have

imagined, that actually

one day this might come true.

Yet during my research I realised, that

Internet is scary and it resembles

what was the plot of 1984,

where war is peace,

freedom is slavery,

and ignorance is strength.

Basically, I started my experiment

2 years ago by implanting

myself a biochip.

I volunteered to become an early version of

a Terminator. Basically,

to understand true challenges

of data management

and, basically, what it's like to

live in the Internet of things.

Today I'm gonna share my discoveries with you.

So you know and understand, that the biochip

is right here , in my left hand.

And it's very small- 2,12 mm

It has a small chip of memory

in it and an antenna.

And all that is covered by so-called "bioglass".

Bioglass is hypoallergenic material

that basically makes the chip friends

with human tissue, because

usually it doesn't happen a lot in nature.

Our body is very good, when it

comes to rejecting anything and everything, that

is you know, with different DNA.

Luckily, in my case, thanks to bioglass

and moderate amount of tequilla,

it went smooth.

So, to your right you see my hand

roughly 2 hours past the surgery

and to your left you see the same hand

three days after.

As you see, it's healthy

and it's good and it's smooth

and already programmed.

But when I started to play with the chip, like, 2 minutes

after implantation, I never stopped since.

Basically, the fist thing I did-

I connected myself to an Android phone

and saved a very small piece of text:

"Do android dream of electric sheep?"

I did it for 2 reasons:

First one- I'm a big fan of Blade Runner

and I did it as a homage

to Philip K.Dick.

And second-

I guess I truly wanted to

know the answer.

And today I know the answer.

But before we walk on my dreams,

let me walk on yours today.

Let me show you, what a guy with a small

basic biochip can do.

So, right now in my hand

there is a futuristic prototype

of a unified key, because right now

in my company

they helped me and replaced

all the locks in the office,

so I can access the campus,

the cantine, the garage, my own

office, restricted areas

just by touching the door.

I don't have to carry an ID on me.

It's just a tip of the iceberg, because

it turns out I can unlock any

Android device with no PIN, no fingerprints,

I just need to be there, by touching.

And if you think about it,

everything, that is related to

identification could be done differently.

For example, we took it further

and we connected a small NFC reader

to a laptop, and did some basic coding

in the backend of my blog,

and we proved, that it's possible

to access any website

or any app just by being there.

I didn't need to enter anything?

no password, no login.

And actually it made me think of

one specific silly thing:

modern identification documents

are obsolete by technological standards, because

what is a passport or driving license?

It's a piece of paper or plastic with

some basic texts and numbers in it.

They are easy to fake

and it has no value anymore.

For example, when you cross the border,

and you show your passport,

it's not the passport itself, that

makes you you. It's the fact, that

it's checked with a computer database

by border control, right?

So, why to carry all these documents on us

at all times?

It doesn't make any sense anymore.

And in fact, why to carry a wallet at all?

Because we proved, that

using cryptocurrency you can actually

pay or get paid just by touching

the terminal.

And actually, some things, that can be done

even with no touching.

For example, every Star Wars fan

knows: if you are not doing this

to doors with photo elements, you

are wasting your time on Earth, really.

And being a fan of Star Wars, I

couldn't resist the temptation

of the Light Side, so my friends

helped me, and we totally misused

Microsoft Kinect and did

some basic engineering and we

forced this door to obey

the power of a Jedi.

So, to look realistic,

the funny thing is: some of you

might be wondering, if it's so awesome and great and fantastic,

what's the catch here?

And those of you, who think this way, are right.

There's a catch.

It just took me a while to understand it.

I had to live with the biochip for

almost 2 years to understand

what I'm paying with for the fun I'm having.

And I'm gonna share it with you.

So, I conducted an experiment,
where I was using

my laptop and my smartphone

and basically lots of devices

and was leading a normal life.

I was buying stuff, I was using

social media and stuff.

But I used only 1 form of ID- my biochip.

And this is where I realized
very weird thing.

Computers don't have eyes, right?

They cannot see us.

The only thing they could see is zeros and ones.

This is how they see us. Those zeros and ones

flying in cyberspace- this is how they get the idea

of what a face looks like, about the behaviour,

about who the person interacting with the computer is.

But I realised, that in my case

those weren't just zeros and ones anymore.

Those were literally parts of my body,

because I produced this, right?

And this was actually a revelation,

because today I'm gonna say a very critical,

disruptive thing: I propose we start

treating personal data as a layer

to human DNA. Because DNA is

the same thing. It has

information, and it's unique to everyone.

Why not to treat it the same way?

In fact, I tracked myself

and I'm gonna show you how it looks like,

so you understand I'm pretty

serious about it.

So, this is me, just

one hour of my life. I just was

using my browser, surfing and doing stuff,

and you can see my interests, you can see

what I did. This is my personal Facebook account

and who I interacted with through the day.

This is more applicable to you

and all of us,
but basically

it's a Wi-Fi, enabled in a cafeteria,

Starbucks in this case,

on a busy day.

One minute of it.

It's us, surfing and researching, doing

our routine, basically.

This is a small start-up developing their mobile

application, that is why they have one color in common.

Because they do one thing in the same time.

And this is a split second of your time,

if you are company like Google, Yandex,

Microsoft, Apple... Anyway, big companies.

Very important thing hit me,

that computers in the last 25 years

changed, their role changed.

In 1992 computers were produced as tools,

marketed as tools and sold as tools.

And we were all users.

In 2020, where the forecast is: we're gonna

have roughly 50 billion devices.

It's not the same anymore,

because the role changed.

We're not users anymore, we're sensors

for a system, that is big,

and we don't own it or control it.

And computer is not a tool anymore.

It's an interface between life and

artificial life. And this

makes hell of a difference.

And, what's more important,

I would be totally okay with that,

if the system was in balance, but

the system is not in balance.

I'm gonna illustrate my point by

so-called Johari concept.

Show off hands, who know what it is.

At least one person, that's okay.

That's good. Two, nice.

So, we have balcony here.

So, as all complicated concepts,

it could be explained by a boring slide,

but we're gonna skip it, because

nobody would read it.

I'm gonna use the example of Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern. So, basically, Johari window says,

that there are only four types of information:

known, unknown, and some other variations.

And we as people migrate from

unknown to known, we improve,

we become better.

And the point is:

everyone has something, that

we don't know about ourselves.

If we apply Johari concept to modern Internet,

this is how it's gonna look like.

There are literally many companies, but

at least five of them know about you more

than you, your family and friends combined.

And they can predict your behaviour.

For me it's not okay.

And you might be wondering:

how did that come up to that?

How did that happen?

Ask yourself just 1 question:

who owns our data?

In my case it's my digital DNA. Who owns it?

Physically. It turns out, everybody but us, who produce it.

That's the problem, right?

And some of you, I'm sure, are engaged in

It and technology and you must be wondering: what's the problem with that?

I don't care, how much data they have on me,

unless they provide quality service and it's free.

Well, I strongly disagree.

And I'll show you, why everyone should care.

The first problem is:

you cannot compete with data.

It's almost impossible.

Next time you're gonna think of

starting your own business, or you're gonna come up with an idea,

think twice.

Because it's almost impossible to compete with

big companies, who can make their service

better just by applying data to it.

They don't have to guess,

they know what businesses to start

and they know how to make
existing businesses better.

It's a problem.

If you wanna understand
what it feels like,

try to play chess with
Deep Blue computer.

I dare you. And good luck thinking,
that you might win,

because you can't.
And it's already been proven.

Computer can beat a human at chess,

because it knows your behaviour,

it can predict your moves before

you even think of it.

The problem is: data is now applied to businesses, not

chess. The second problem is cybersecurity,

because I have lots of friends in

companies like Google and Apple and Facebook etc.

and I think they're great.

They have the best minds working for them.

They truly care about cybersecurity.

The problem is: not everybody is Google.

There are at least 2,000 networks out there

who sell and buy user information

and God know how many small

e-commerces who cannot protect our data:

passwords, logins, credit card information,

history. They just can't.

they don't have resources of Google.

And that's a problem, because cybercriminals

know that. And they can always find a weak spot.

They can use your name by

duplicating your identity and commit crimes.

And the problem here is actually never ending, because

if we go to people, who actually solve crimes,

or whose job is intelligence or country intelligence,

they are not okay with the situation either.

Because governments have needs, we all know that.

They would always want to know everything about everybody

while keeping their own secrets.

It's okay, it's what governments do, right?

The problem is twofold.

First: the access to information now is binary,

meaning that, let's say,

you're crossing the border and let's

say there's an officer asking you

to open your iPhone. If you do that in comply,

you are not giving him just a small piece

of information that this person needs for his official business,

you're revealing your whole life.

And it's not okay at all.

And the second problem is that

with all due respect to governments, they are

like enterprises, and they are not

safe, they can be hacked.

And cases like WikiLeaks,
Edward Snowden, StuxNet

and many others prove, that nobody's safe.

And the problem is, that if you're well-funded

cybersecurity organization,
there's nothing

more sexy to you, than a huge

governmental database. And governments

love creating those. Still, the problem is:

it would take a while for them to catch up

with new mentality, that technologies like

encryption, PTP storage,
like cryptocurrency like

bitcoins and stuff, they have to be

embraced and developed.

Because it would help the governments.

They just don't get it yet.

But even that's not the main problem.

The main problem is human rights.

Because, you know what?

Nobody listens to our opinion.

I'm not the first person on Earth

to bring up the privacy issue.

I'm just probably the first cyborg to do that,

which makes the difference, I hope.

So, my point is, many times

we asked to have an adult conversation

to discuss the fact that clicking

"I agree" is not a fair choice.

It's an ultimatum.

And it's not okay.

But nothing changes.

And I have a reference in our history,

that is very similar: slavery.

Because slaves might have an opinion, but nobody

would care, right?

Because they're slaves.

And if I have an opinion, that it should be stored,

my own digital DNA should be stored differently

and deal with differently, nobody listens.

That makes me a slave in a way.

Like a digital slave for sure.

And you must be wondering

if there are any good news.

Well, there is good news,

because in our history we did have

our fair share of slavery and oppression,

and I think that Internet is a form of society.

It copies our history. And in our history we

did have some feudals, monarchs, who controlled

vast amount of resources and used it

for their own good. With no explanation.

One could wake up and go and attack France.

Because someone just wanted to attack France.

Just gather up, grab your swords and go.

I just like their wine.

And this is exactly
what's happening in the Internet.

We have several companies, who own

the new analog of medieval gold or

modern oil and they use it for their own sake.

Without explanation.

And I think it's a huge problem.

To be honest, it's not that obvious to

most of you right now.

But let me take you there, in my head.

Let's say one day we will witness singularity.

And nothing changes today.

Singularity is a situation, where

in several years, theoretically,

computers will be sophisticated enough

to store our minds online and let us live

forever as machines.

Well, if that happens, and it's not impossible,

what would happen?

We're gonna be indexed.

All our memories, all our emotional experiences,

everything that we are, would be indexed
by companies like Facebook,

Google, Apple, Microsoft.

We would lose our freedom forever.

We're already there.

But there's still time to change something.

And coming back to my question before

"Do androids dream of electric sheep?"

well, as part android, my answer is no.

I dream of a totally different thing.

I truly dream that one day

we're gonna be free in the digital

world the same way we are in the real one.

Because I strongly believe they're not different anymore.

Artificial and real, they're merging.

some of you might say: that's not realistic.

It's your opinion, I abide it.

I'm just saying I won't stop.

I'm just gonna pursue my freedom to the end.

And actually I already did something.

I gathered a small team and this spring,

we got a patent, that basically

makes all logins and passwords obsolete in

the nearest future. Your behaviour will be

your identity on the Internet or everywhere.

and some of you might say: that's tracking.

No, I'm doing it responsively.

I have a chip here. And just by using the technologies like encryption, containerization, disinformation

and by faking my digital trail I can win

our privacy and freedom back

while keeping businesses, governments and us happy.

I think I found a win-win solution.

We don't need our IDs or credentials online, what we

need is single multipesonality, that

every person could own and switch

at all times and where his

rights to commit mistakes,

his rights to do whatever he wants

and his rights to be untrackable

are actually guaranteed by constitution and law.

I'm not saying you should join me.

I'll be happy, if you do.

I'm just saying that this is my dream.

And my path.

And I'm going all the way.

But whatever you dream about

I just hope that all those moments

won't be lost in time like tears in rain.

Thank you.