Polypticon, Part I: The Joint Political-Informatic Effort Project
About this ebook
The decentralized and autonomous philosophy of blockchain and the Internet, applied to massive social control, in a hard science fiction novel full of puppets and puppeteers trying to move the strings.
In a world where the Internet has changed all social interactions, the thought of creating a technological tool for population control is more science than fiction. But also a story that by definition must be plausible. Bringing utopia closer to our reality, asking if it can become a sinister dystopia just by taking a few wrong turns.
Will technocracy be the political solution or another way of control?
Its story will be told through the epistolary format prevailing in the 21st century, that of chats, voice messages, and conversations in anonymous forums. Archives of digital culture, which are embodied in different actors such as programmers, journalists, and politicians. It is their interactions that will shape or limit the capabilities of this AI with the chances of being a new virtual God.
Polypticon collects in its chapters the reactions, negotiations, and experiences between antagonistic ways of understanding the world. From the anachronisms of traditional politics and media to Internet experts; both virtuous and toxic users, and new forms of human interaction. Both socially, politically, technically, and ethically. The logical result of raising an ambitious software, based on blockchain principles, global outsourcing, and open source. The thin line between monitoring and commanding, expressed in the line of code that will program the definitive AI.
Will hackers and influencers, statesmen and programmers, stalkers, and celebrities agree? More importantly, will that artificial intelligence be allowed to be controlled by humans?
The answer, in this series of novels too close to reality in a time of pandemics, institutional instability, the predominance of social networks, and promises as volatile as cryptocurrencies.
About the author
"[…] As we have already told you, Byron Rizzo does not exist. He is merely a fragment of your tormented imagination. It seems that, in your delirium, you have invented an independent author who, of all places, publishes from Neuquén. A place that, being so absurd, might as well have been invented too. Go and look out for it. You will be surprised. However, the implausibility of his existence does not stop there, but rather, in your stubbornness, you have made him a young, prolific, and, for lack of a better word, strange individual. The most common thing that usually happens in the narrative of the fictitious Mr. Rizzo; is that reality collapses in/on itself entirely. You, not without some merit of your own, have given upon him an acrobatic ability over narrative, made him into a tightrope walker of dialectics, and cultist of cosmic seppuku in each story. Now, if you don't mind, and after such a superficial description, tell us, what seems more likely? That the aforementioned Byron (a strange name for an Argentine, to add insult to plausible injury) exists; or that you have lost your mind. For your own good, for the sake of your family and good name, start at least to consider the truer option: That the so-called Byron Rizzo, of whose books you have told us so much during therapy, does not exist. That he is merely an excuse of yours to avoid facing the foundational problems of your life. In fact, doesn't it seem more likely, after all, to assume that Byron Rizzo... is you?"
Byron Rizzo is an Argentine author, born in the city of Neuquén in 1990. If you have read any of his books and do not understand them, the author is pleased. Because you are closer to the truth. If you have read him but think you understood him at first glance, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about and live in deceit. Because all and each of his books have been meticulously designed to be read at least twice (or so he claims). And if you read reviews or descriptions of living authors as if they had not written them themselves, it is clear that you still do not understand how narrative and the creation of reality within it work, even in marketing. Moreover, they usually do it from a repugnant, contrived third person. Often inventing positions, titles, and merits that you couldn't care less about (nor do you have the means or desire to verify, for that matter). As if any of that influenced in the slightest how one writes! Ugh! (spitting sound). After all, who are we going to trust with a summary of your own life, a Community Manager? Over my dead writing body! Now, knowing that, I invite you to ask yourself: Do you really believe everything you read?
What genre does this author write in? I don't know. Do you like it when labels are put on you? No? Then why do you do it to others? You should be ashamed. For your information, Mr. Rizzo has written fantastic horror stories, psychological suspense novelettes, non-fiction books on technology and contemporary life, poetry, futuristic science fiction dystopias, and over a hundred online articles. Come on, dare to label him. See if you can. Otherwise, you are invited to read his works, if this little act of dangerous honesty has been to your liking. Consider yourself warned, too.
