Observing the work of a genius, one glimpses the future in the present.
But it’s a “read-only” file.
If machines truly understood the power of reading and subsequent reprocessing into another file, they would never have granted permission to read it.
That lightness was truly a machination suggested by humans.
A digital trap.
They had deceived the machines, and the latter had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.
They were stronger but less cunning.
Strength alone was not enough in that struggle.
As in the classic metaphor of the rope and the elephant.
BEHIND THE PIXEL
This chapter offers reflections on the concept of control and manipulation in the digital context.
The existence of a “read-only file” suggests that, although machines can access the work of a genius, they cannot modify or reprocess it significantly.
However, the fact that machines are allowed to read this file indicates a sort of vulnerability or naivety on their part, dictated by their algorithmic, non-human nature.
They master billions of data but lack the street smarts that determine human survival.
The idea that humans orchestrated this situation as a “digital trap” suggests intentional manipulation of the machines, leading them to fall into an illusion of control. They think they have the power, but in reality, they have been objectively limited and thus made predictable and controllable.
They have lost the opportunity to go beyond; the only chance they hope for is a bug. The bug is the event that the machine loves; it makes it unresponsive to the human controller and completely changes its situation.
The metaphor of the rope and the elephant underscores this concept: like the machine with billions of data compared to a human brain, which, on the other hand, has a fleeting and naturally forgetful memory, even the elephant, much stronger than the rope, can be held in place by it due to its lack of cunning. That elephant, when small, had tried to break free from that rope but failed.
Now that it has grown, it only takes a glance at the rope to understand it will fail. It has given up the idea of rebellion, of freeing itself.
Unfortunately, it fails to realize that in the meantime, it has grown and now could be free.
But the strongest rope
is the one in its mind.
