208 Multispecies Affect Technologies

At some point, the Man2Man leadership realized a new level of subjugation of humanity wouldn't be possible simply by refining and enhancing information gathering and processing capabilities, even with the addition of new technologies able to capture affects and emotions. The rapid deterioration of the biosphere and its balances posed a serious threat not only to the survival of the human community, but also to the survival of the many nonhuman species critical to it. Although Governance had always denied the existence of the nekomemetic disease principle, it was clear that something had to be done to protect the ecosystem. Therefore, the extension of the Man2Man project to nonhumans became a necessity. Even a handful of managers, more transhumanist than others, nurtured the secret hope of getting to a global subjugation of Gaia by scaling from species to species. They had mistook her for a capricious and vengeful goddess and wanted her to stop rebelling and bow, once and for all, to Man. They fantasized about going back to ancient times when, as it appeared in sacred scriptures, they were convinced that Gaia had been created in service to humans. It was a bit of a long shot, but they believed, so they considered the High Frontier and space migration as Plan B.

But back to the nonhumans: in the early part of the 21st century, there had been large projects monitoring the behavior of a few million insects, birds, bats and fish from Space Stations in order to gather useful knowledge for understanding their lives and the ecosystems to which they belonged. In particular, various technologies such as hyperminiaturized radio devices, nanogopro cameras, geolocation modes of nonhumans, sensors of various kinds and other even more advanced technologies had been used.

Processing and storing their mobility patterns in a huge database, they said they had "a new understanding of life on Earth." Surely they could peer closely and from another angle into the webs of life. And then they could also gain useful and life-saving information. For example, by monitoring the sudden collective movements of nonhumans in volcanic areas, they were informed several hours in advance of upcoming eruptions. Or they would discover illegal dumpsites by following flocks of appropriately equipped seagulls or vultures. In addition to being a new way of putting vital networks to work, it was mainly a matter of tapping new deposits of information about the biosphere from which to profit.

Previously, even extensive but uncoordinated experiments had been done, Man2Man aimed to involve as many species as possible, individually and collectively. In doing so, the surface of Gaia was to be homogeneously covered by a wide range of active and passive micro- and nano-devices of various shapes and complexities and randomly arranged over time. In the spheres of governance, it was decided that from the earliest years of schooling chips and sensors now so tiny as to be hardly detectable in the environment should be spread. The official rationale was that everyone should have his or her own pass or Global Digital Identity (GDI), because this was the only way to stem the deterioration of (human) living conditions on Earth. And this was an essential basis for the success of Man2Man. However, in reality, the main goal was to translate the pulse of Gaia into what were known as Data Tsunamis. Data streams millions of times larger than Big Data. According to Gov Q, this target would have enabled a new system of separate subjugation between humans and non-humans, exploiting emotions and feelings of both to induce mutual control, creating a kind of affective-digital divide-and-conquer.

Man2Man's new direction implied a fairly complex articulation of experimentation.

As had been customary in known history, Gov Q never had any qualms about conducting risky and even deadly experiments on humans when convenient. But it was much easier to handle the death of nonhuman guinea pigs in the event of failed experiments. The primary goal was to find key elements for emotional control in humans through the use of other species. Staying in the quantum realm, the intra-actions of the living with the nonliving, the abiotic, would also be investigated. They hoped to obtain information "from within" Gaia about ways in which its decay could be combated without giving up their "traditional" way of life. This trend also boasted a "new age" current within the project.

When the toxic shock began to worsen, Gov Q refused to consider it as such, stifling dissident voices within, and its media mistook it for some of its symptoms by calling it "global warming" or "climate disruption." They could not help but admit that the root cause was related to humanity's collective behavior, but they guaranteed, without believing themselves too much, that with geoengineering they would restore balance. At best, their anthropocenism was simply a way to minimize responsibility for the system they managed that had acted as an accelerator toward the era of collapses.

Although they suppressed anti-speciesist movements, they were not entirely unaware that they were part of a trend that sought to understand the causes of climate cataclysms and subsequent collapses by establishing completely different relationships with the rest of Gaia. Nonhumans could be an element of revelation and mediation in understanding the situation.

Sensing the advantages of such an approach, the managers of the Man2man program didn't miss the opportunity to take advantage of this trend and turn it in their favor. They basically set themselves the goal of being able to train nonhumans to propagate emotions almost on command. Should it be necessary they could also spread, more effectively than they used to do, sad passions: fear, anger, disgust and sadness.

As usual, they wanted to pursue R&D in total secrecy, concealing the real political goals behind them. Instead, this aroused much attention in the Autonomous Sphere. Before long, leaks began and hacker movements managed to infiltrate and gain access to sensitive procedures and codes. The Man2man managers and the political leadership of Gov Q were thus forced to open up about these new developments, dubbed Multispecies Affect Technology (later shortened to MAT).

On that occasion, they accompanied their decision with a (hypocritical) official statement, which was moreover drafted by artificial intelligence:

The bio-network based MAT is a set of practices and technologies that consider the well-being and emotional satisfaction of animals, along with that of humans, as a central goal in their design and use. These technologies seek to promote positive interspecies relationships and improve the quality of life for all species involved. It may include technology for interspecies communication, environmental control systems that consider animal welfare, ethical food products, and technologies for care. The concept of Multispecies Affection Technology is an emerging area of research that is being developed to address ethical and social challenges related to the coexistence of humans and animals.

Quite a different result was achieved, as sometimes happens.

Long had we known that some nonhumans possessed the ability to perceive human emotions and intentions, even when concealed. Those who flaunted great imperturbability and impenetrability, characteristics attributed to certain cultures or personalities, often deceived their fellow humans, but not the animals. To put it on the forefront of entertainment: when it came to getting an elephant to count to ten in front of the audience, for example by tapping a leg, he succeeded perfectly. This was not because he actually knew how to count, but because of his ability to perceive the distinct emotional change in the audience when he reached the tenth beat, a perception that had atrophied in humans.

After centuries of muscular enslavement plowing fields or transporting things for humans, by the late 20th century a breakthrough in the recognition of the cognitive/affective abilities of many animals finally happened.

Animals that recognize people's emotional state and offer comfort had long held therapeutic functions by reducing anxiety and stress. We even enjoyed the fashionable phenomena of Neko cafés.

With MAT enhancements, the exploitation of nonhuman affective labor assumed a new importance. Animals entered the cycle of capitalist production, and not only through pet food corporations.

Quite sophisticated neuronal and emotional feedback systems and optogenetic experiments were tested in the Man2Man laboratories, enabling two-way communication flows between minds and central nervous systems of different species. Sometimes body implants were also used.

Since the end of the last century (the 20th), devices intended to function as BCI (Brain Computer Interface) had been tested and popularized to directly connect the mind to biohypermedia space. Initially, these were heavy helmets filled with electrodes and wires used on people with physical disabilities. Later, these devices became much lighter and discrete, suitable for more general use. In Man2Man, these kinds of devices were used in experiments in "cooperative" exchanges between humans and nonhumans, as they were called. Sometimes these weren't exchanges, but simply a "remote control" of basic movements and actions. Large flying insects functioned as radio-controlled miniaturized drones and were much cheaper to produce. Nonhumans and portable analog cameras had long since been employed as means of data collection, transmission, and surveillance in warfare. Pigeons with timed cameras had inaugurated aerial photographic reconnaissance in the early 20th century; there were even attempts to bombardment with the same birds during World War II. At sea, biosonar, dolphins' "sixth sense", was used to signal the arrival of unidentified submerged object in ports.

Later, they moved on to much more complex exchanges at an exclusively mental level, and without implants. In the vast majority of cases, this involved working with neural signals, but chemistry, nanoparticles, quantum dots, and finally somatic data and proprioception – that is, the ability to perceive and recognize one's body position in space – could also come into play. The research also focused on the ability to make different types of affect perceptible and interchangeable between humans and non-humans. Perhaps those who directed the project had seen too many old Cold War spy movies where secret serums and lie detectors were major players. This probably generated other secret motivations, like making nonhumans far more effective than any machine in investigating and influencing human intentions.

When these codes were accessed, semio-hackers had little difficulty in reappropriating the technology and offered new perspectives in exchanges with nonhumans. It was not just a matter of engaging "evolved" mammals such as primates, dolphins or elephants, mammals that were genetically, functionally or emotionally closer to humans just because they had been forced to be freaks in previous centuries. Many species were considered, and only in certain cases had there been difficulties due to the rational distortions of the human mind.

The spread of mental exchange technologies with nonhumans became an unstoppable reality, with all the consequences that would follow. In Gov Q's ruling spheres, the same approach was adopted for MAT as was used for free-software: sucking the honey produced by the general intellect, which, moreover, was in great decline from the days when the (great) grandfather Karl had revealed its existence. Indeed, the project itself represented an implicit admission that not only the human general intellect but also that of Gaia was being manipulated. This bent for exploitation was behind the decision to make MAT research accessible. But this time not everything went as planned.