Joysticks in whose Hands? Hacking the Self ad a Crime and as Corporate Practice 

Abstract

Despite the pervasive integration of digital technologies into all aspects of our lives, the emergence of novel technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), generative artificial intelligence (AI), and brain-computer interfaces, has led to a significant expansion in the scope and depth of technological influence, such as the generation of experience, knowledge (or a pretence thereof) and communicative expressions, as well as the removal of the very separation between the biological and the digital/machinic. Under such circumstances, the idea of an independent self (if one ever existed) becomes structurally impossible. Instead, the self becomes enmeshed with digital technologies to the point of co-constitution. Here, the self becomes susceptible to hacking in two important ways. One is through the more traditional cyber-criminal activities, such as human joystick attacks pertaining to VR environments and, potentially, brain-computer interfaces. However, it may be argued on a more fundamental level that it is possible to achieve the same results without hacking. In fact, this is exactly the way in which corporate algorithmic governance of the digitally enmeshed self already takes place. This process involves the structuration of digital spaces and soon, the establishment of corporate control of brain-computer interfaces as well as training and ownership of AI models, all of which help structure the individual self with corporate, rather than personal, interests in mind. In combination, these two modes of determination are seen as alternative but structurally similar ways of hacking the self and, effectively, turning individuals into human joysticks controlled by an intangible – but no less potent – hand. 

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