Culture of Solidarity grantee European Digital Rights on why we need stories
21 Dec 2022
Our Culture of Solidarity infodemic grantee European Digital Rights has published four science fiction stories that illustrate some of the obstacles people face when engaging with technology, how people can be part of the solution; and what our collective futures could look like.
As they wrote us: “Thanks to the funding received from the European Cultural Foundation, we worked with several creative writers, illustrators and narrators to create four sci-fi utopian stories. While the context of the stories revolves around technology, in particular AI, state surveillance and platform power, at the centre of the narrative we have positioned the people.”
Why we need stories
Digital technology and the internet brought with it a promise of equal access to knowledge, openness and connection. Technology is ubiquitous and provides humanity with a unique opportunity for progress. However, the complete and ever-present digitalisation of our lives has made it easier to surveil, control, profile and profit from our attention, data, bodies and behaviours. Over the last 20 years, EDRi has worked for a world in which people live with dignity and vitality in the digital age.
It is difficult to draw an alternative vision for our future because the digital rights field is dominated by complex language, jargon and policy-focused dialogue, which acts as a barrier to understanding and relating to threats to our digital rights and freedoms. While marginalised groups bear the brunt of technological harm, a positive collective vision of a future in which the digital rights of all are protected has been at the centre of the decolonising the digital rights field process co-led by Democratic Freedom Fund and EDRi.
