bring the noise

"My name is Legion, for we are many"

Much of the work in data communications has been about getting the clearest data possible, clearest signal possible - and while this may be useful when I'm trying to have a convo on Skype, noise reduction isn't necessarily a good thing when applied to online identity.

Triggers: Marcus Brown writes a little here, Chris Locke writes a little there and Adam Ferrier writes somewhere else.

The strand that links these blog posts for me their recognition that our identities are partially cocreated with others, they lie in relationships (but not wholly). And not all exchanges are good. And not all relationships are wanted.

In giving out our data, in presenting ourselves in different environments we must guard against being too transparent or else we end up like Mr Cellophane.

One option is passive acceptance.

Another solution is to give away as little as possible. Get off the grid. Put up the gates. Information survivalism.

The third is to overwhelm & confuse. Multiple identities. Multiple data. How many social security cards can you collect? How many people do you want to be? How much noise can be introduced into the system*? One person as many? Many as one?

How do we introduce disorder into the world for own collective advantage?

*Michel Serres is obsessed with noise, with turbulence. I have to go back to my copies of his books.