The Manifesto of You

27 Mar 2023 · 3 min

The Future of You

27 Mar 2023 · 3 min

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In this essay‑like monologue, the speaker explores how the internet and emerging technologies have reshaped personal identity. They argue that despite the proliferation of fragmented, pixelated, and duplicated online personas, there remains a singular "you" at the core. The talk moves through several intertwined ideas: the feeling of being split across time and platforms; the notion that we are increasingly "data"—our digital footprints define us yet we surrender them freely; the emergence of a digital multiverse where multiple selves coexist in multiple worlds; the ethical questions of rights, responsibilities, and authenticity when machines can read, copy, or even deperson us; and finally a call to actively steward our evolving self‑hood through continual learning and intentional choice. The speaker ends with a Shakespeare‑inspired rhetorical question about whether we will become "IT" (the technology) or remain the human behind it.

Chapters

There's only one you, no matter what you do, or where you are, or who you're with. Some are feeling fragmented and distributed across time. Others accept they're pixelated, copied, pasted, and posted. And yet the internet does not own us. It's not even sure if we're a cat or a dog. But something fundamental has changed. The web was what we could not live without. The next, it was something within. A digital pill, a mind-reading tool. A chip in the hand is worth two in the phone. We are imbibing and inhaling and ingesting the internet, partying like it's 2049, but leaving something of ourselves behind. Today we're flesh and bones and smartphones. The multiverse will make it worse. Multiple selves in multiple worlds. We used to twin our towns, but now we twin ourselves. But it's still you, and only you. The question is what to do. Can I prove I am myself? Does a person still exist if a machine in a wood cannot read them? What if their opinion is beyond the pale? Surely then we can deperson them. Hmm, looking for a bot to fact-check that one. What are our rights, since we're talking of robots? A better question: what are our responsibilities? To explore, to understand the changing you, to learn, relearn, and self-learn about the self. You are your data. But if it now defines you, why do you give it away for free? Because we're also so much more than and just our data. You are all the people you've ever met, all the instincts you've ever had, all the love you've ever lost, and all the ones still to come. All the best decisions you ever made, and all the absolute worst ones too. You're all the jobs you've ever had, and everything you've learned so far, plus everything you're ignorant of, even if you think you aren't. You may be profiles or personas online, These are the many echoes of our many selves. But you're still in charge, if you want to be. Do you want to be? Or do you want to be IT? To be or not to be IT, that is the question.