Speaker Interview: Igor Bijuklič

Igor Bijuklič is a Research Associate at the Educational Research Institute in Ljubljana. His main field of research is critical media studies and philosophy of technology.

🪩 DISCO:

What does digital sovereignty mean to you? How do you (try to) live a digitally sovereign life?

🎤 Igor Bijuklič:

If I try to think of “digital sovereignty” alongside political sovereignty, then it is something that includes not only the control of use but also the freedom to decide whether or not to use digital technologies.

🪩 DISCO:

As we witness rapid technological breakthroughs in the field of AI, which digital rights do you consider the most endangered?

🎤 Igor Bijuklič:

Since the phenomenon and progress of AI is marked by an (expanding) intangibility and obscurity of the whole phenomenon, I see the biggest problem in ensuring transparency.

🪩 DISCO:

What other threats to digital rights are you worried about? Do you have any insights on how we can address them as a society?

🎤 Igor Bijuklič:

One concern is that political decision-makers and their institutions are no longer able to realize what the public interest is and how it differs from private interest. I am also concerned that attempts to regulate AI legally will be futile or too late, since it can easily prevail that “too serious” regulation is an obstacle to the full development of AI.

🪩 DISCO:

How can events such as DISCO Slovenia 2023 help foster international collaborations and partnerships in promoting digital sovereignty and protecting civil liberties in the interconnected world?

🎤 Igor Bijuklič:

Definitely.

🪩 DISCO:

What obstacles do you consider most critical in our efforts to depatriarchalise and decolonise technology? Can you think of examples of subversive uses of technology that can help us reshape it?

🎤 Igor Bijuklič:

In order to use certain technologies in a subversive way, we first need to have a good understanding of the full formative potential that certain devices have on us as users (how they alternate our practices, reorder our psychological habits, perception, soc-political relations and moral sensibilities ...).

🪩 DISCO:

What advice would you give to individuals on how to responsibly navigate the online environment in regard to their privacy and digital rights? Are there any specific tools that you would recommend?

🎤 Igor Bijuklič:

Actually, I could use some advice of this kind from someone more experienced than me.

🪩 DISCO:

Can you recommend a book that we should all read before the conference, a podcast that we should subscribe to and/or a website that we should bookmark?

🎤 Igor Bijuklič:

At this point, I can't think of anything.

🪩 DISCO:

Which disco tune should we definitely add to the opening party playlist?

🎤 Igor Bijuklič:

Stereo total: Europa neurotisch.