In Leipzig, a technological “utopia” caught up in reality

Between an ever more dystopian technological present and accusations of sexual violence, the annual congress of hackers has struggled to concretize its counter-model of society.

For four days, the hacker capital was called Leipzig. About 15.000 of them gathered from December 27 to 30 in Saxony's largest city as part of the 34^e Chaos Communication Congress (34CCC or 34C3). For the first time, this high mass of the counter-culture digital curated by Chaos Desktop Club (CCC), took place under the gigantic curved glass roof of the center of the Leipzig congresses, giving the conference the air of a ship launched into space at night.

Everyday language has only retained the dark and evil side of the hacker. In the vast Leipzig Congress Center, everywhere one looked there appeared another side, determined to to do, understand et change technology for put at the service of all. One of their idols, the whistleblower Edward Snowden, made famous by the documents of his former intelligence agency which he transmitted to journalists, attempted his own definition. “A hacker is someone who doubts, who takes the risk of deceive, which tries to réparer things, which tries to discover what we ignore. Doubt is the first form of dissent,” he launched, lyrical and exalted, during a videoconference intervention for support the refugees who Hong Kong, sheltered him in 2013 when he was fleeing US authorities.

Edward Snowden during his speech on the occasion of the 34^e Chaos Communication Congress, in Leipzig, on Thursday

December 28. Martin Untersinger / The World

This conference is an opportunity for a large number of activists, militants and slightly crazy hackers to reunite. We don't just come to the congress as a vulgar professional gathering, for all know of the latest developments in IT security. We also come there but especially for finding his peers, his friends sometimes.

Imagining another technological future

The opportunity, every year since the early 1980s, to reflect the place of technology in society, and imagine another one. “The Congress is a utopia, a temporary autonomous zone, it is important that we continue to but wish to remain conscious Thirty years ahead of our time” said Tim Pritlove, Berlin-based artist and mainstay of the Chaos Computer Club, at the keynote.

A lead that has never seemed so small, as the reality seems to have accelerated. “For a long time, the future has been stable, identical to the past. But now everything is going so fast that it's impossible to to predict the future from one month to the next » summed up Scottish science fiction author Charles Stross in one of the first congress lectures. Connected objects gone crazy, manipulation of elections via Social Media, hacking of all kinds, countries engaged in an arms race in digital space, artificial intelligence ever more worrying and voracious digital giants in personal data… Sometimes it was necessary help work of a sacred imagination to project in the long-awaited utopia. “The dark dystopia is not inevitable. It is up to us to use the tools to prevent that " however, launched Mr. Stross, echoing the motto chosen this year for the 34C3, “Tuwat” - contraction of "You were", " Do something " in German. But all is not gloomy at a CCC congress and two atmospheres coexist for four days.

Sundowner. #34c3 #fairydust #bcc #leipzig #ccl #congress #rocketscience pic.twitter.com/SWM489gaAl
— Yves (@Keksliebhaber1) 29th December 2017

On the one hand, a joyful atmosphere, somewhere between Woodstock and a ZAD. In the halls of the Congress, the participants criss-cross the cramped offices on their scooters where old game consoles are tinkered with, leaning over their laptop covered with stickers. In one corner, a robot made of odds and ends walks in circle under bright light and puzzled looks. Not far away, an inflatable unicorn hangs over colorful neon lights. Pushing the logic of autonomy to its limits, the organizers even set up their own telephone network, thanks to which it was possible to exchange calls and SMS between participants. Unlike many more traditional IT security conferences and for ensure a total independence, the financing of the event does not rely on major sponsors of the sector, and its organization is voluntary.

How to trick artificial intelligence

On the other, multiple conferences where experts reflect on the present and the future of technology and how to return more ethical. Researcher Katharine Jarmul presented the latest advances in adversarial machine learning (adversarial machine learning), in other words the means of disrupt the self-learning mechanisms of artificial intelligence, in particular those which make it possible to recognize Objects. An image speaking louder than words, she released a video of a miniature turtle, whose barely altered surface was enough to make believe to a computer that it was… a firearm. Another example, applied to herself: she succeeded in modifying her photo so that Facebook no longer detects his face and stops want to identify it when she put it online. An almost transparent result for the human being: the image is a little blurred but very recognizable.

The researcher, who pointed to the many programs available to everyone and allowing the machine to be tricked, sees in this gender of techniques a means of finding pouvoir on these artificial intelligence programs "more and more dangerous, which go control always more our lives”.

Researcher Katika Kühnreich has, for her part, detailed how the “social credit” system works whose deployment began in China. This system, which will be compulsory by 2020, consists of assigning each citizen a score reflect his participation in the company. Using data as diverse as its purchases or its behavior on social networks, this system currently gives access to certain commercial rewards. But some are already thinking about book certain jobs at most "deserving". This system is all the more insidious as it uses game mechanics to increase Control social : each participant can see the score of his friends, who are themselves taken into account for calculate his. Enough to push each citizen to be his own tyrant.

If 2017 was dominated by accusations of Russian interference, a conference has come recall that Western countries also use social networks to interfere in the lives of policy other countries. Researcher Mustafa Al-Bassam unmasked several Twitter accounts used by British intelligence services. In 2009, becoming passer for lay Internet users, the latter were interested in theIran : besides propose a censorship circumvention tool for help demonstrators who marched in numbers in the country following the presidential election, they used these same tools to surveiller then the activity of these activists on the Internet. This simple technique was then reused, notably in Kenya, a Somalia and Syria.

Hackers caught up in sexual violence

The dark reality catching up with the congress utopia is not only technological: several participants strongly criticized, online and offline, the attitude of the conference organizers. According to several testimonies, the latter authorized the presence at the congress of several people accused of assault, sometimes sexual.

Solicited by Le Monde, the Chaos Computer Club does not wish recall details of the charges, citing the vie privée victims and defendants. He prefers to point to the many mechanisms put in place to parry to all forms of violence, in particular the Awareness Team, responsible for adjust any problem between participants, including “in case of bullying, sexual harassment or any form of discrimination”.

Several accusations of harassment, even rape, have also targeted important members of this community in recent months, even before the global wave of testimonies triggered by the Weinstein affair. In 2016, several people have accused Jacob Applebaum of sexual assault, even rape, resulting in his resignation from the team of development du software Tor anticensorship. Morgan Marquis-Boire, another figure in the middle, was also the subject of rape charges a few weeks ago. Nor is it the first time that the congress itself has faced these problems: in 2012, it was the scene of several sexist incidents.

Despite some calls for a boycott, the existence of this gathering, unique and precious for many members of this community, does not seem threatened in the short term. But since it wants to be the place where we imagine a technological future that is more respectful of humans, many are now asking it to to start by sweep in front of his door.

source: the Monde.fr