Love, The Machine and The Ghost. (en)

Marcus John Henry Brown Our relationship with machines had always
been a tricky one. We always seemed to want more from them, more
than they were either willing or capable of giving back to us. Then
came R.A.C.H.E.L – the algorithm, the chemical, and the vision. We
talked to her and she talked back: a machine that gave more than
any machine had ever given. Controlled by thought, protocols, and
the government, she augmented and enhanced us but then she led us
astray. She took us down a darker and much more dangerous path.
R.A.C.H.E.L made us evil, cold and sad. It’s 2019. The Black
Operatives Department have been forced into hiding: not only was
there no space for their covert advertising services in a world run
by Trump but they are now considered a threat. The Alt-Right have
swept across the United States and Europe’s "Coalition of the
Right" have successfully implemented the “Wasteland Act” and
digital border controls are firmly in place. Data and programs, it
would appear, didn’t make us better, happier or safer. But the
Black Operatives Department have been working quietly in the
shadows on an antidote. They have decided to rise again as a
resistance to the horror that they helped created: the horror of
R.A.C.H.E.L. Part performance, part satire, part dystopian parable
of our times. This talk is a rallying cry for resistance, hope,
romance and compassion and it builds upon the talks “The Snowden
Pitch” and “Purpose of Entry”, both of which premiered at, and were
specially written for the re:publica.   PREVIOUSLY AT THE
RE:PUBLICA The Black Operatives Department/ Collective "Control the
hearts & minds of billions by putting dystopian thinking at the
heart of communications". The Black Operatives Department is a
fictitious advertising agency. Founded in 1956, it works
solely for government organisations and has been responsible
for clandestine marketing operations such as the Bay Of Pigs,
Nixon, the Cambridge Five and Snowden. Marcus uses the agency to
describe the world seen through the eyes of an advertising man:
it's a dystopian world.  The Snowden Pitch - 2014. Marcus
introduced the Black Operatives in his
2014 re:publica talk "The Snowden Pitch". This talk was
set in 2008. The audience: 4 senior members of the NSA. The Pitch:
The Black Operatives Department, had developed the advertising
campaign "An Everyday Bond". The proposal: unleash a whistleblower
into the world and guarantee the NSA and their surveillance
products maximum visibility within the espionage
community.  The talk explored the Snowden case as a
communications campaign and the world described, defined and
manipulated by data. The talk predicted a cold war renaissance,
cyber war and post-factual media manipulation.  Purpose of
Entry - 2015 Set in 2018, "Purpose of Entry" explored future
Europe's political shift to the right.The Black Operatives had been
briefed by "the Coalition of the Right" to produce an algorithm
that could control the newly developed, sovereign national
internets and fulfil the terms of the "Wasteland Act". The product
they developed was called the Real-time, Algorithmic, Chemical,
Hallucinogenic, Enhancement, Lady, or R.A.C.H.E.L. for short.
 R.A.C.H.E.L. turned the human body in a tracking pixel, spoke
directly to the user and permitted access to certain parts of the
digital world. What could possibly go wrong? Written pre-Brexit,
"Purpose of entry" explored the idea of Neo-Orwellianism and
predicted Europe's shift the right, e-borders, Brexit and the rise
of Bots.