FLASH
Shkruar nga Daniele Manca
How much do we govern this giant of screens, computers, systems and connections that go beyond us as citizens, as families, as businesses, and even as states?
Let's be honest: we expected it. We knew and we know that without technology, without those little black boxes we carry in our pockets or everything behind a screen in the doctor's office, our lives would be nearly impossible. But we also knew that something could get stuck in the wonderful tangle of wires, memories and software.
It happened yesterday. A piece in the complex puzzle that runs our lives has been missing. In many areas of the world, including Italy, we have seen planes grounded, credit cards and payments blocked, stock exchanges, hospitals, banks and supermarkets running smoothly.
We got a taste of what the big disruption might be like. The technological revolution started at least seventy years ago, why is the nightmare materializing now? Why is the dystopian future of a technology that rebels or simply stops working becoming a reality today at least in part?
Of course because computers and information technology have been widespread in recent years. They accompany every moment and act of our life. Or because, as Roy Amara Law, a Silicon Valley scientist, puts it, "We tend to overestimate the effects of a technology in the short term and underestimate them in the long term."
The technological revolution is related to computers, with computational and simulation capacity that has grown exponentially in recent years. But the difference, the one that produced the jump in quality, was that another important quality went along with the ever-increasing power: the ability for computers to be networked to talk to each other.
The Internet, which should not be forgotten is a communication protocol, has allowed interaction between different entities. We individual citizens as well as individual companies operate more and more in connection. Communication is the basis of relations between companies, citizens, states and businesses. But this makes the system increasingly interdependent.
It happens that a software update in the United States of America, a program which, paradoxically, was supposed to protect computer systems from attacks by malicious people and cyber terrorists, resulted in the blocking of the systems themselves. These are those "black swans", those unexpected events that cause great damage.
It had already happened with the pandemic. And this happened with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We realized that we were unprepared. Those cities like London where no cash is used and which have seen businesses shut down for a morning, people ordering medicine online and not receiving it, those supermarkets locked down, transport penalized and in chaos, all this requires money to find the answer to a simple question.
How much do we govern this giant of screens, computers, systems and connections that go beyond us as citizens, as families, as businesses, and even as states?
Not much, obviously. When an IT crash can bring hospitals, infrastructures and networks to their knees, we must be clear that we were not and are not in control of these processes that simplify life but leave us with something very little understandable.
We have the attitude of those who say "everything works and will continue to work like this". Unfortunately, it is an illusion. And seen in the light of what happened, it makes those who went so far as to mock Europe, which insisted on giving the rules of government, of "governance," to the new digital world, smile. Indeed, we have often heard "Europe sets the rules, but there are no companies that can compete with the Americans".
Here is another false myth. That of those who say the world of the web, the internet and technology can sort itself out. "Sectors such as health care had norms, practices and ethical foundations built over centuries, if not millennia..." says Fei Fei Li, the Stanford professor described as the godmother of artificial intelligence in her book All the Worlds I See ( Lewis University Press ). And he wonders what the ethical code is that underlies AI.
For this reason, it cannot be enough for Europe to facilitate the birth of as many Internet giants as possible that can duel with the other big names, while the global Wild West prevails outside. Because you forget a detail. The companies that own these pervasive tools and that effectively surveil our lives are private entities. And like any company, rightly so, they tend towards profit which ensures their sustainability over time.
However, they are the rules that guarantee that the public interest related to the smooth operation of a clinic or a train station can be combined with that of the private entity with mutual benefit. The words of those companies that threaten not to offer their services precisely because Europe requires them to respect the rules that underlie the balanced development of civil life. Almost as if one preferred the Far West.
We have witnessed a whirlwind of digital development in the last 30 years. Which has produced and will produce advantages that materialize in every second of our lives thanks to a computer or mobile phone. But the ever-deepening interconnection between technology, the economy, and everyday life requires an equally deep reflection.
At the first signs of an outage, statements coming from the companies involved tended to deny the possibility of a cyber attack. Almost as if to exorcise it but at the same time giving it the measure of our vulnerability. The basis of the rules is transparency. Who knows if we'll be able to explain to those stuck in an airport what really happened yesterday. Just so it doesn't happen again./ Adapted "Pamphlet" from "Corriere Della Sera"
Lini një Përgjigje