Strengthening the Civic Body as the Bandwidth for Optimised Emotion Expands

Abstract

AbstractThis final chapter draws out more substantive answers to strengthen thecivic bodyagainst the harms arising from the optimisation of datafied emotion, as the bandwidth for the datafication, and optimisation, of emotion expands beyond web-based platforms to include bodies through biometrics. First, the chapter teases out core shifts discernable from a backward glance. This identifies that, while false information, emotion, profiling and targeting are hardly new phenomena in citizen-political communications, the scale of contemporary profiling is unprecedented. As such, a prime site of concern is the automated industrial psycho-physiological profiling of thecivic bodyto understand affect and infer emotion for the purposes of changing behaviour. Exploring this through three scenarios, the chapter looks to near-horizon futures. This is an important angle given the rapid onset, scale and nature of contemporary false information online, the rising tide of deployment of emotional analytics across all life contexts and the likely greater role that biometrics will play in everyday life. Peeking over the horizon line distils a core protective principle of protecting individual and collective mental integrity. This is necessary to strengthen thecivic bodyto withstand false information in a future where optimised emotion has become commonplace.