Introduction Class

What is cyberlaw?
Cyberlaw represents the evolutionary path that the law—as a discipline and as normative
enterprise—has underwent since the emergence of Internet.

Why we should care?

Because understanding evolution of legal thought, scholarship, and regulation with
respect to the technology helps us to understand better and be able to deal in a more
constructive ways with new challenges that are constantly emerging.

What is about Cyberlaw?

Is about law as international regulatory endeavour:
• Growing importance of the need for international regulation
• Which should also be supported by the normative enforcement measures
• Otherwise, Example of EU: Artificial Intelligence Act, General Data Protection Regulation.

Ethics as a supporting tool

No normative power, but not everything is obtained by sanctions. “Ethics as systematic
and critical description, analysis and justification of moral claims and moral considerations
helps us to shape institutions, policy, technology, laws and governance in a digital age”
(Ethics Group UE)
We should recognize “ethics as a source of legislative choices that can help to critically
evaluate them – but which is not an alternative to them”.

Regulation of Digital World

Types of regulation: Co-regulation (regulated self – regulation), Self-regulation (soft

norms, codes of conduct), De-regulation, Regulatory sandbox.

Co – Regulation
When the states and private sectors cooperate in the regulatory endeavor, for a
commitment to a common goal, and for threats in the cybersecurity (internet). Example:
o Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention, 2004). Adopted by
countries, except China and Rusia.

- ¿What is regulatory self-regulation? Self regulation which still complies with

certain parameters established by the state. Not that different from co-regulation,
yet the state is less actively involved. Example:
o Germane: The “Network Enforcement Act” fines social networks if the do
not remove illegal content within 24 hours of notice. To determine whether
the content is illegal, NEA creates agencies that are financed by social
media companies.
Self – regulation
Is a dynamic concept, defined by each sector. It is a regulation by involved parties, who
are mostly affected by the regulation.

- Quite often its an ultimatum: either the sector self – regulates or the state comes
in.
- The advantage is that there is no territorial problem, that the legislation usually
has. But the disadvantage is that it doesn’t have the normative power of law and
represent only the sector’s interest (not those of the whole society).
- Example: ICANN, condes of conduct of social network.

Soft Law
Are norms and informal rules – quite often expectations - that if adopted by people, have
effect even though they do not have legal power. Should involve some sort of incentives,
otherwise, why bother? Examples:
o Codes of conduct, principles, guidelines, recommendations, reports,
memos.

- Soft law is much more usual in the economically powerful countries and less
frequent in economically unstable countries.
- Soft law is more flexible and easier to interpret and apply. Therefore, easier to
create and find consensus. Also, thanks to soft law, the industry discovers the
potential for the future legal norms, to see what actually works and what doesn’t.
- Soft law is the best for emerging technologies:
o But, problems with transparency, accountability and obligatory nature.
o Usually developed not only by private sector, but also by state agencies and
other private and public bodies.
o A secondary objective is to generate trust to citizens and privates in this
new sector. If there is trust, citizens will use technology and companies will
invest in technology.
o Indeed, many technologies—3D printing, virtual reality, etc—have never
been regulated. This is because soft law still needs to be created, and
technologies are getting quicker into our homes: It took 30 years for the
25% of US population to have a phone at home, and only 7 to have
Internet.
- Code of conduct of Facebook: Comitment to freedom of expression, which could
be limited in case the following values need to be protected:
o Authenticity: if someone is pretending to be (s)he is not and tries to cheat
others
o Security: if the content is threatening or silencing the others
o Privacy: if the content threatens privacy and intimacy of other people
o Dignity: if the content humiliates or bullies other people
Deregulation
State is less participatory to increase the competition and innovation.

- The reduction of state participation also means reduction of costs of such

participation: State shifts its attention elsewhere.
- Usually comes with the privatization of certain sectors.
- Examples: telecommunications, radio, TV, transportation (aviation, railways). And
all these services have benefites from private investments: Mobilephones, Internet
services, wifi, etc.

Regulatory Sandbox
- We need a space to investigate how certain technology—company model, etc.—
would affect the existing economic, polítical and legal structures
- Quite often regulatory sandbox is a meeting space for the private and public
sectors. Particularity: limited period in time.
- Examples:
o The use of digital ID in financial transactions
o Voice and facial recognition
o Predictive medicine
o Autonomous cars

Principles of regulation

- The International Telecommunications Union: governance of digital world cannot

be based on rules but on principles, which are more flexible to deal with dynamic
and complex situations: Changing world—digital world—doesn’t need rigidity, but
flexibility.
- Generations of regulation according to the “Manual Of Digital Regulation” (ITU):

G5: Agile and collaborative regulation

 - Collaboration between regulators of different sectors: Consumer protection,
competition, finance, connectivity, data protection, etc.
- Formal and informal collaboration: Information exchange, contribution to identify
common grounds.
- Less rules and more principles: Less prescriptions of what to do and more emphasis
on the results
- Principles based in standards and expectations: It is easier to find an agreement if
your search is based on principles rather than on norms.

Internet

Internet and cyberspace

- Two concepts that are mutually supportive.
- Cyberspace is a continent or universe, but internet is a network of highways, roads,
motorways that connect countries, cities, villages. www is what we see while
travelling these roads and highways. Protocols are the rules of traffic.

Historical Context
- 1963: The birth of the idea of Intergalactic Computer Network presented at
Defense Advanced Research Project (DARPA), US Department of Defense
“globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly
access data and programs from any site”
- 1983: TCP/IP protocol adopted: Internet starts.
- 1990: Internet grows into widespread phenomenon:
Paradigm shift: from one-to-many model of communication to many-to-
many model of communication

Important protocols: TCP (Transmission control protocol)/IP (Internet protocol)

TCP/IP protocols: Enable the functioning of Internet and they specify how the data is being
transfered, received, what are the requirements for addresses, etc. Protocols are the rules
of traffic. These protocol has many specific protocols:
 SMTP (email protocol)
 HTTP (protocol for hypertexts)
 TELNET (protocol that permits us to acces to the computes at a distance)
 Etc.

What is G? 3G, 4G, 5G.

G shows the speed and connectivity if the network.
 3G the end of 1990: Video calls and Internet on mobile phones
 4G in 2000: 500 times quicker tan 3G. Permits Mobile TV, video conferences.
 5G quicker in dowload or upload contents: Vital for the IoT (Internet of Things) and
other technologies (autonomous cars)
I. Internet theory: new forms of economy and non-market forms of community

1st Phenomenon of internet empowered: Transformation of industrial economy

There is a transition of an economy driven by manufacturing and reliance on tangible

capital and physical labour (hierarchical and centralized), into globally interconnected
economy built of ICT and services based on knowledge (intangible capital).

There is a increasing reliance on information and knowledge:

- Internet as a forum to create the knowledge and as a medium to distribute and
share it.
- Idea: knowledge is nonrival (it cannot be destroyed by consumption), intangible,
ubiquitous good which is easy to distribute and exchange. And this is what
empowers its growth and prosperity.
- Knowledge growth and prosperity is strongly based on ethic of open sharing and
decentralization.
- Being nonrivalrous, the knowledge is not destroyed nor depreciated (as it happens
with consumer goods):
o On the contrary: more it is used and shared, more it grows in value. Differently
from information such as trade secrets which can be used to gain competitive
advantage over someone else.
o Therefore knowledge-economy is absolutely different from industrial economy
where the logic of scarcity applies: Economics is about scarcity: how to
distribute limited resources to satisfy human needs. Knowledge economy
defies this logic.

2nd Phenomenom of internet empowered: Non market participatory and collaborative

forms of community

The sharing and circulation of knowledge, as it was explained above, means that new
forms of nonmarket, non-proprietary, and cooperation forms of production will emerge,
together with communities whose members foster democratic participation. This will
stand for a networked or sharing economy, where exchange is based not on price but on
social relations. Examples:
- Wikipedia
- Open source movement
- Crowfunding

The network effect: Increase and no decrease the value of certain goods as more people
use them. Thus forming a network of users: basis of open source software.

Network effect has contributed to building commons-based peer production based on

sharing of decision making, production process and its outputs between the participants
equally, who are completely free and autonomous to make their choices. As a contrast to
property–based production (one owner who decides everything).

Social impacts and concerns

II. Institutions of Internet governance

In the broad sense:

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)

- It’s a non profit organization, origin in USA. Until 2016 under the oversight of the
US Department of Commerce. So, not even 10 years of complete independence.
- Their function (among many) are to manage technical part of domain names, in
particular first level generic domains names, such as .org, .com, .info.
- Their goals are the stability of the internet and equal representation of everyone
(internet as a network of networks belongs to everyone).
- Its organized in 112 state representatives, with a boad of 16 directors, and
observators from different institutions: World Bank, international organizations,
etc.
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
- Organization: No membership is needed, anyone can participate by signing up for
a working group or registering for a IETF meeting:
• Around 7000 people a year participate one way or another
• Ombudsteam to solve problems among participants
• English only
- The mission is to produce high quality, relevant technical and engineering
documents that influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet in
such a way as to make the Internet work better. These documents include protocol
standards, best current practices, and informational documents of various kinds.
- There is commitment to openess and fairness: decentralization, user-
empowerment, sharing, etc.
- They work on internet’s technical standards:
• i.e. IP v4 transition to IP v6
• Technical documentation published as Requests for Comments (RFCs), which
have two sub-series:
o • STDs: Internet Standards
o • BCPs: Best Current Practice
- The work is done in working groups and is organized in different areas.
- The decisions are made by a rough consensus, no voting.

ISOC (Internet Society)

- Founded in 1992
- Area of work: “Supports and promotes the development of Internet as global
technical infrastructure” including technologies and open standards, protocols.
- Created Public Interest Registry to manage .org, ngo, and .ong top- level domains:
• Internet Registry was supposed to be sold to a private body, which meant
that the price caps for .org and similar top-level domains would be removed:
ICANN stepped into stop the sale.
- Representatives in every country: Spain has three – Madrid, Zaragoza, and
Barcelona

III. Internet fiascos

Accordin to Nemitz (2018):

1. Mass surveillance and loss of privacy: Internet is not privacy friendly.
2. Recruitment to terrorism
3. Hate speech and lack of tolerance
4. Elections and democracy
5. Rise of populism

1. Mass surveillance and loss of privacy:

 Google record your IP address, use cookies to create digital profiles - what you look
for, when, which links you click upon – and manages enormous amounts of
personal data (useful and sometimes accessible not only to commercial entities,
but also to governments and criminals).
In EU privacy and personal data protection regulation limits enormously Google yet
not enough. Since 2012, linked to Google services, search queries linked to IP
address of the pc and user’s Google account.

Internet in the language of rights:

- Right to connect
- Right to Internet access
- Right to broad band (recognized in Finland)
- Freedom to connect

Non of these rights is established in any international law treaty (non mandatory
resolution of UN Human Rights Council 2016).

Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in its art. 19:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any
media and regardless of frontiers.

 Double content of the right:

 Persons: Have a right to access and to connect to Internet to be able to
exercise their rights of freedom of expression, opinion, and other human
rights.
 States: Must ensure the accessibility of Internet and cannot impose
restrictions unless there is a very serious reason (such as national security,
public order, rights of other people)
• To cut the access to Internet
 • To cut the access to specific websites
¿What is the problem?

- The state must ensure the access, but the access is managed by private parties.
- Yet the state has not only to ensure the access, but also that the access has a
accessible price (Spain).
- Internet as common good: public/private versus public/private/common. Universal
access.

Internet kill switch

In 2019, trump intent to pass the “protecting cyberspace as a national asset act”, the goal
was to abolish net neutrality that it’s the basis of the internet: it cannot slow down,
discriminate, or otherwise block contents, webpages or aplications.

The idea of Trump was to stop that neutrality and ask the providers for payment to access
different websites, apps, etc.

Situation in China

- Informatic barriers: no Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google only Chinese versions

of these applications. Also no access to foreign web news (Times, BBC, etc.).
- Many rules and prohibitions, so that people choose to exercise self-censorship
- No privacy nor anonymity
- Internet Service Providers have to closely collaborate with the authorities
- Death penalty for hackers
- Virtual Private Networks to get connection to Japanese or North Corean servers:
download of VPN must be done outside China.

Situation in Turkey

- In 2017 Turkish government blocks access to Wikipedia in all the languages (not
only Turkish) with no explanations or reason-giving. In 2019 The Constitutional
Court of Turkey sentences this block as a violation of human rights. Since 2020
Wikipedia is accessible again.
- Between 2014 to 2018 more than 200 000 websites were blocked (Facebook,
Wikipedia included).
- Whenever there is a political unrest, social networks, blogs, websites of human
rights organizations experience blocks.
- Obliges social networks with more than million users to have a local representative
to enforce court orders to remove contents. Solution: VPN

Artificial Intelligence
Definitions that changed over time: Our understanding about what we think the AI is, has
expanded, moved away from the original ideas, and turned into something completely
different.

Timeline

- 1940s-50s: birth and first attempts to make computers copy human behavior.
- 1960s: General Problem Solver, Fuzziness and ELIZA
- 1970s: Dark Ages: too high expectations – limited computer power – philosophers
attack (Searle)
- 1980s-90s: Rennaisance: expert systems -- technicians ignore philosophers --
robotics.
- Last decades: take off with new applications in finance, military, medical and other
domains where AI outperform the humans.
- XXI century: no limits, acceleration of (belief in) AI. ChatGPT.

History of AI

- 1943: Walter Pitts and Warren McCullock show how artificial neural networks can
process information.
- 1950: Alan Turing publishes "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"
- 1956: At the Dartmouth computer conference, John McCarthy coins the term
"Artificial Intelligence”. Statement: "Every aspect of learning or any other feature
of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be
made to simulate it."
- 1956: First working AI systems are shown.
- 1958: John McCarthy invents Lisp language.
- Early ’70s: invention of Prolog
- Late ’70s: first commercial expert systems
- ’80s: many experts systems are developed
- Late ’80s: growing awareness of limitations of current expert systems, and new
studies on neural networks
- ’90s: AI Applications in many domains: machine learning, case-based reasoning,
multi-agent planning, uncertain reasoning, data mining, translation, vision, virtual
reality, and games.
- 1997: Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov, world chess champion
- Late ’90s: Software agents, Web crawlers, Spiders and other AI systems are
developed for the web.
 - In the 2000s: Commercial success of systems for the automated execution of legal
rules (such as Ruleburst/Oracle Policy Automation)
- 2010 to date: Drones, Autonomous Cars, Robots, internet of things, etc.

¿What technological changes empower AI?

- UP Computing power
- UP data availability
- UP data storages costs

AI-based expert systems

Expert systems before AI, answer based on knowledge and it has no Natural Language
Processing: write to the system.

The AI expert system, answer based on different kinds of data and what it has learned by
analysing it (new patterns establishes, new links earlier unseen). The Natural Language
Processing talks to the system.
 Recommendation system: Netflix.

Negative and pessimistic approaches

- John Searle: the idea of a non- biological machine being intelligent is incoherent.
- Hubert Dreyfus: AI is impossible.
- Joseph Weizenbaum: the idea is obscene, anti-human and immoral.
- Various: since AI hasn’t reached human level by now, it must be impossible

Strongs and Weaks of AI

Complex area including knowledge representation, pattern recognition, ontological and
epistemological studies, all aiming to understand how our mind works.
- Strong: create human intelligence
- Weak: simulate human intelligence

AI is not about creating a human mind but about creating something that could think like
humans.
Evolution of AI: from narrow to super intelligence

- Narrow AI: specific tasks, specific abilities (aka weak AI). Example: autonomous car.
- General AI: human kind of intelligence: we learn, we abstract, we create, we solve
problems. Example: chatGPT, Google Bard, etc.
- Super AI: beyond human intelligence: learning, abstracting, thinking, creating,
solving problems BETTER than humans. Example: none. It is one of the themes for
existential risk scholars.

Machine Learning and Deep Learning

Machine learning (ML) is the ability of machines to receive a set of data and learn for
themselves, changing algorithms as they learn more about the information they are
processing: machine learns by itself.

Deep learning is one of methods of ML, that mimics the way our brain works: software
learns, similarly to the way we do, to recognize patterns, sounds, images, and their
combinations, thanks to enormous quantities of data. Differently from ML, in this case the
software can spot and correct its own errors: machine not only learns, but also teaches
itself.

Classification of Machine Learning:

- Supervised learning: learn from examples and labels given by humans; i.e. this is a
picture of a cat.
 - Unsupervised learning: algorithm makes sense of data on its own by extracting
patterns, features, etc. (Deep Learning). i.e. no indication what these pictures (of
cats) are, the algorithm must classify them by itself: what these pictures have in
common and under what parameters they could be classified.
- Semi-supervised learning: small part of data is labeled by humans, but the rest is
not. i.e. Nows to label some cats, but no all of them.

Neural Networks
Biological brain and its functioning as object of study and inspiration: functioning of brain
is reproduced by simulation.

- Brain is build of neurons (nerve cells, that permit us to do everything), which are
connected: each neuron is connected to 10 000 other neurons.
- Neurons are not all the same: some are bigger, some are connected to more
neurons, or to bigger neurons, etc.
- There are sensory neurons (deal with signals from sight, touch, ...), motor neurons
(to move muscles), etc.
- Billions of neurons act together in complex way: BRAIN

Artificial Neuron can be input (external or from another neurons) or output (external or to
other neurons)

The Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) has the same underlying idea: inputs to the neurons
(image of a lion) produce outputs transmitted to other neurons (classification of a lion
among the animals of Africa) to get to a final output (recognition of a lion as a lion)
Works similarly as real neurons: inputs need to reach a threshold value to make the
artificial neuron to fire.

Robotics
*Faltan definiciones*

I. Classifications and Features

First, there is an effort to imitate and copy the human physical intelligence: the parallel
with humans is the strongest.

Features of robots

- Embodied: have a physical form

- Are responsive to the physical environment
- They interact with humans
- Autonomous or self-controlled
- Intelligent (physically) and learning from experience

Areas of applications of AI and Robotics

- Military: drones, robots to disable bombs.
- Social: assistants for elderly, children, ill, needy of assistance, ..
- Commercial: virtual assistants to manage the relationships with consumers,
entertainment, advertising.
- Medical: surgery, rehabilitation.
- Transportation: autonomous cars, buses, trucks, ships.
- And so much more ...

Early example: ELLIE (medicine)

Her aim was to help the veterans of war to deal with depression and post- traumatic
stress. Characteristics:
- Virtual
- Can identify the signs of psychological discomfort: elusive gaze, tone of voice,
bodily movements)
- Not a real physician, but more like a nurse.

Another example: xian’er - robot budhist (entertainment, spiritual). Sings mantras and
explains the basics of budhism (has a screen with on it which helps it to answer 20
questions). The goal of its creation: disseminate budhism in China. It has only 7
movements.

Reasonableness: human versus machine

We expect machines to be safer than humans: More reasonable. What we accept in

humans, we are not accepting in machines: we use and build machines because they
should be better than we are.

The problem is foreseeability or a possibility to predict at any moment what a robot can or
will do.

An additional problem is “Intelligent deviation” (Kahana 2020): some AI can deviate from
their objective if the deviation is optimal:
- Leave some space open for AI to find the best, quickest, most cost efficient
solution.
- Might raise serious problems: how to establish the limits of deviation and whether
the range of deviations is predictable?
- Predictability guaranteed in case of autonomous cars: What the car can do is a
limited set of options.

Robotics based on autonomy

- Industry Automated (machine for operating)

- Socio – technical system: Semi autonomous robots (cars)
- AI - based: autonomous robots: ¿?

II. Consciousness and cyberconsciousness (Rothblatt) – Bina 48

When a robot is created using the memories and knowledge from human mind the result
is new, spontaneous, and original combinations of those ideas which in turn lead to
original thoughts.

This idea of cyberconsciousness has not progressed beyond a few enthusiasts, and yet it is
still on the table
Based on software (MINDWARE) which will activate a digital file with person’s thoughts,
memories, feelings, and opinions (MINDFILE) to be uploaded on our technology-powered
twin or robot (MINDCLONE)

i.e. Bina 48: Cyberconscious Robot

III. Ethics of robotics and humanoids

Should we or should we not build humanoid robots? We want people to be able to

distinguish robots from humans, to prevent deceit, therefore, robots should be built not
to look like humans: yet humanoid robot development prospers. WHY???

What is Uncanny Valley?

Negative human reaction to humanoid robot: this reaction is reached at a certain point at
which human-like robot looks too much like human and provokes revulsion, rejection,
repugnance, and horror.

Until this point is not yet reached, more human-like robot is, more we identify with it in a
positive sense but once this point is reached, we reject it. “We” here are western societies,
that is not the case in Asia: the more the robot looks like human, the better (Different
theories about why).

Further ethical questions

1. Robots to help and support elderly or ill: dehumanization versus effective and less
expensive services? Is it about loosing employment or about giving people more
freedom to do other—more creative, less burdensome—activities?
2. Sex robots: yes, as a solution to the prostitution problem, to deal with deviations?
But do they solve anything?
3. Animal robots: separate research agenda on their mistreatment and psychological
effects on humans: Animal ethics are extensible to robotic animals?

IV. Personhood

The origin is a Resolution of EU Parliament: 16 February 2017 with recommendations to

the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics (2015/2103(INL)).

One of the goals is creating a specific legal status for robots in the long run, so that at
least the most sophisticated autonomous robots could be established as having the status
of electronic persons responsible for making good any damage they may cause, and
possibly applying electronic personality to cases where robots make autonomous decisions
or otherwise interact with third parties independently.
Something is a person if it has states whose interactions appropriately mimic our rational
architecture (Pollock 1989).

History of personhood is a story about who got or lost what rights when and why:
- Rights are social constructs, human inventions and not something that objectively
exists in the world.
- No humans, no rights
- Rights ensured by governments

Legal fictions
- Slave a thing, corporation a person.
- State, political party, European Union, NGO, UN.

How we decide whom to grant the rights?

- When we discover that the differences which were though significant are not
significant after all
- New rights are being invented continuously: rights evolution is process

Personhood in law

Persons in law be either:

- Natural person: adult, children, people with mental disabilities
- Juridical (artificial) or legal person
- Entity without legal personhood

What is the difference between the juridical (artificial) person and an entity without legal
personhood? The members of the former do not respond with their property, while they
do in case of the later.

Conflicting relationship between humans and juridical persons.

Theory on legal personhood

- The origins are humans “social likings”: we moral recognize those around us
(community) all races, handicapped, animals, etc. These comes before legal
recognition.
- From a legal perspective, we recognize rights and duties of social liking.
- Example: in ancient Rome children consider things that pater familias could sell,
marry, divorce, give to adopt, imprison, force to work, and, in general, exercise a
jus vitae necique the children belonged to pater familias till their death.
- Justic or legal person: An answer to the socioeconomic consequences of industrial
revolution.
• Great Britain was the first country in Europe to recognize the corporations
as legal persons through a Limited Liability Act of 1855.
 • The first US case law sources are of 1819 when Chief Justice John Marshall
argued in Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) that “from
the nature of things, the artificial person called a corporation, must be
created, before it can be capable of taking anything. When, therefore, a
charter is granted, and it brings the corporation into existence, ..., the law
deems the corporation to be first brought into existence, and then clothes it
with the granted liberties and property”

What does it mean to be a person in law?

1. To have legal rights and legal duties

2. 3 features that both natural and juristic persons have:
a. The right to own property
b. The right to be sue and sued.
c. ?

AI-based robot as a legal person

A fully autonomous robot = A robot which is aware of its actions = A robot which is liable
for its actions = A robot with rights and duties = A robot is a legal person?

Similarities between Robot (AI) and legal persons:

- Could belong to more than one person
- Exists as long as its stakeholders approve its functioning
- Liability limited to the property (or unlimited liability)
- (Could be) based on Charter
- Created as a response to technological and industrial development
 - Created to provide certain services for its stakeholders (cooperative)

Corporate personhood does not guarantee accountability, because of:

- Difficulties in identifying the accountable YES
- Difficulties in investigating large companies YES
- Difficulties in proving the wrongdoing: i.e. the bank selling a financial product
based on the supreme home load, knows or should have known that these loands
are soon to become insolvent and thus acts deceptively YES/NO
- (ab)use of human rights against humans YES/NO
- Unbalance in resources YES
- “too big to jail” YES
- Innovation used against law (in particular, financial sector) YES

But, any of these problems could possibly matter in case of AI legal Personhood?
(destacado en rojo).

The main difference of a Robot (AI) as a legal person, is the ficticious autonomy versus
(almost) real autonomy.

Blockchain and smart contracts

Essence of blockchain: as a technology to keep records

- Public, decentralized and distributed ledger:

 - Block: digital piece of information (up to 1 MB)

o Info. about transactions (purchases, bills, ...)

o Info about parties (i.e. me under a pseudonym, and other party: shop
(purchase), public supply company (bill), ...)
o Block ID info: unique code (hash) for each block
- Chain: public database
- Goal: record – distributed not edit info.

How to add a block to a chain?

1. Transaction: you must buy something or push the button “buy now”, “pay now”,
2. Verification of transaction by a network of computers, which checks your transaction:
date, price, parties.
3. Storage of transaction: once it is verified, it is stored in the block, together with other
transactions, and then,
4. HASH: Block is given a unique code (the information is encrypted with the help of
algorithm) that functions as signature.
5. Block is added to blockchain and from that moment on it is available for everyone to
see.

Hash: The signature in Blockchain (Cryptographic Hash function)

1. Hash is generated in accordance to the strict requirements: only hashes that meet
such requirements are accepted by the blockchain. i.e. only hashes that have a
certain number of zeroes are accepted, or only hashes that have 10 zeroes, etc. A
unique string: i.e.
761A7DD9CAFE34C7CDE6C1270E17F773025A61E511A56F700D415F0D3E199868
Hash generator: SHA 256. Check it at:
https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/sha256.html
2. Hash generation is a kind of solving of a puzzle. The computer continues
generating hash options until it finds the right one:
o With the right number of zeroes, or whatever other requirements it has to
meet
o Related to the previous hash (in case it is not the first hash for the first
block of blockchain)
3. Once the solution is found—we have the right hash—it is broadcasted and checked
by other nodes of the network through a relatively simple operation.
 4. If all is correct, hash is applied to a particular block and block is added to the
blockchain.

What is mining?
The search for the right kind of hash (that is, hash that meets the requirements) is called
mining and the people who do this job are called miners:
- They provide with the computational power to find the right kind of hash
- There are specific mining software for this purpose
- Economic incentive to keep mining is payment for the effort (and computational
power)
- Comes in cryptocurrencies

Secure and trustworthy? YES

- New blocks are always added at the end of the chain. Once it is there, it is almost
impossible to manipulate its contents (thanks to HASH).
- If you manipulate the contents, you must manipulate the HASH too, but then you
also must manipulate the HASH of the following block, which will include the old
HASH that you changed, and so on and so forth, ... You will have to manipulate all
the following HASHes!!!
- It is not impossible, but it is really time and resources consuming.

To join or to attack blockchain network: Blockchain is run by very powerful computer

programs, so you must have sophisticated technology if you want to.

Blockchain network is made of network of users’ computers, but no human involvement:

more accuracy.

Blockchain technology is the basis of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin.

Weak sides of Blockchain

1. Legal problems of decentralization: Ownership of network and its data is linked to
the legal responsibility for it: Who is who there? Who holds the data? Who is
processing the data? Who is responsible for its security and integrity?
2. Pseudonimous: opens the door for illicit transactions. SILK ROAD to the deep net,
money laundering, .especially if privacy-focused blockchain is used
(https://z.cash/).
3. Jurisdiction: Distributed means no fix location, but liability many times is linked to
the location (i.e. where damage took place). Courts of which country should decide
on controversial issues?
4. How to exit blockchain? No clear instructions.
5. Not clear regulation and no alignment with the current financial regulations: There
are new rules emerging: Bank of Spain, Tax authorities.

Future of Blockchain
 - Makes it possible to coordinate interactions between people
o Machines that can sell, buy, ... and do other things that we do
o New non-human players in the economic transactions on blockchain
- Use of blockchain for IP management (IP agreements, DRM, proof of authorship
record, royalties ...)
- Bernstein is simple web app that allows anyone to create a digital trail of records
of their innovation and creation processes using the bitcoin blockchain and
national timestamping authorities. Any digital asset of any size can be quickly
registered online to prove existence, ownership, and development over time, in
real time. Most importantly, al notarized data will remain perfectly private, thanks
to a unique cryptographic layer.

Smart Contracts

Definitions:
1. “Smart contract is a set of promises, specified in digital form, including protocols
within which the parties perform on these promise” (Nick Szabo 1996)
2. “Digital computable contracts where the performance and enforcement of
contractual conditions occur automatically without the need for human
intervention” (Wright and de Filippi)
3. “Agreement in digital form that is self-executing and self- enforcing” (Werbach and
Cornell 2017)

Characteristics:
1. It is not a contract, it is a code, inserted into blockchain to negotiate a contract.
 The code and the conditions of the contract are publicly available on the ledger.
2. This code becomes active and contract comes into force, once a set of conditions is
met (i.e. certain event triggers the execution of code: IF A – THEN B)
3. No intermediaries necessary (banks, investors, notaries, ...)
4. Example: I rent you my flat by using a smart contract:
 you get the PIN to enter it as soon as I get the rent fee in my bank account,
 if I do not give you PIN then smart contract refunds you your rent fee
5. Smart property: control over a thing through smart contract (flat).

Examples:
- A song: The Smart contract triggers every time someone buys my song (pays 50
cents and gets the song). Once 50 cents are paid, the Smart contract divides the
payment between me (91%, that is 45,5 cents) and 3 collaborators who
contributed in creating the song (9% in total, 3% each, that is 1,5 cent each)
Instantaneously!
 No author rights organization, no music label (Sony, etc.)

Oracle: trusted third party

It is a program that store and feed the blockchain with external information

- The program that connects to my bank account so that when your payment
arrives, it triggers the execution of Smart contract.
- It can also be contacted to update Smart contract because of change in
circumstances, etc.
- Oracle problem: how to make sure that the information supplied by Oracle has not
been altered and is up to date?

Contradiction: if Blockchain is trustless, why do we talk about Oracle as a trusted third

party?

 Legal obstacles to introduce these contracts into legal circulation: Limitations of smart
contracts within the realm of contractual arrangements:

1. Smart contract is based on machine language, that is, structured according to

conditional statements: if A, then B; if C, then D:
i.e. if Migle paid the fee for the flat, send to Migle’s cellphone a code to open the
door
So, for the time being the machine language does not permit us to represent
complex obligations and use smart contracts for sophisticated contractual
arrangements (i.e. contracts of derivatives, construction contracts, etc).

2. Civil codes usually:

a) Require that certain contracts have a certain form: i.e. a testament, that
the smart contract formula cannot respect,
b) But leave freedom for the parties to agree on the form:
• Form has evolved: stone, wood, papyrus, paper, ... e- form, ...
• All these forms represent the declarations of wills (the essence of
contract), but its execution —bringing these declarations into being
— depended on the human beings who expressed their wills.

This is why we cannot say that the smart contract is a (form of) electronic contract ,
because
although we could argue that it represent the declarations of wills (as a normal contract),
but —differently from traditional contracts—it executes itself automatically, without
direct human participation.

Few problems and solutions of a smart contract:

1. Consent: In case of smart contract, the agreement is expressed in machine

language (no version in human language): to what extend a consent of a party to
enter a contract can be respected and reflects the real intentions of the party?
 Further problems: consumer contracts and abusive clauses
 2. Difference between content of agreement and code of smart contract:
 What the parties agreed might not be correctly expressed in the smart contract,
because of the limitations of expressivity of machine language.
 Solutions or what lawyers could do:
1. Data meaning threshold agreement between the parties: written agreement in
human language before entering a smart contract:
 It establishes the content of agreement and specify how the smart contract will
be interpreted. A contract to make a smart contract
2. Interfaces that permit to introduce certain specifications of the contract and then
translate them into machine language of smart contract
 It is a service offered for payment
3. Procedural agreements between the parties: general rules that guide the smart
contracting between the parties:
 i.e. establish a procedure to adopt in case of erroneously executed smart
contracts.

Other problem: The contract is invalid or needs to be changed/updated/

modified/..because of, i.e.: lack of consent of a party or deceit; or some of the obligations
are:
- illegal (subenfiteusis),
- against morals (belly for hire) or public order (agreements to harm the interests of
the third party or agreements to avoid judicial procedures for money)
- Other reasons, such as changes in law

 Solutions can be either oriented to:

• Paralyze the execution of smart contract
• Modify the code and correct the errors
In both cases, as the execution cannot be stopped, what can be done is:
1. Self destructing code: to introduce an additional code that inactivates the smart
contract
2. Structural intervention: hybrid system (not completely blockchain) or private
blockchain networks that permit to identify the nodes (miners) qualified to update
the contract or to change it. But in this case you loose all the pros of decentralized
and anonymous transactions
3. Oracle.

Execution of the smart contract

- Unstoppable (by energy cuts, network interruptions, natural disasters, ...)

- Unmodifiable
- Irreversible (certainty of execution)
- Impervious (to any changes of terms and conditions established)

Another characteristic of Smart Contracts

Increase commercial transactions for parties that do not know each other (and therefore
there is no trust-based relationship)
 Smart contract code libraries:
- Open source libraries where parts of code, dedicated to specific kind of
transactions, could be stored and used for each case
- Open source could guarantee continuous improvement by legal experts
- We could use these parts of code as Lego blocks to build a specific Smart contract
to meet particular needs we have.

Smart contracts are the basis of DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)

¿What is DAO?
A non-hierarchical organization that perform on a peer-to-peer, cryptographically secure,
public network, and rely on the voluntary contributions of their internal stakeholders to
operate, manage, and evolve the organization through a democratic consultation process
(van Valkenburg 2015)
Or, an organization that relies on blockchain and smart contracts as its primary source of
governance.

Rules of DAO
- It might be for profit or not-for-profit
- No need for managers, CEOs, ... who cost a lot and are subject to human failure
- Based on open source code
- No clear link to any national legal system and no registration: legal uncertainty,
which sometimes plays against the DAO itself:
o Clarity of legal status of DAO (legal person, entity without legal
personhood, etc.) makes it more attractive for the investors.
o Clarity on liability: although there is no specific legal system, the DAO
produces legal effects and therefore the clarity of applicable legal rules
could also make DAO more attractive and acceptable.
 Alternative solution: insurance fund/pool - small fees for each
transaction to cover any kind of damage caused by the DAO.
o Threat of “legal system shopping”.

Etherium DAO

At the beginning of 2016 anyone could buy DAO tokens, that the company sold to raise
the money to finance different projects (crowfunding):
- Token is similar to share in the company or can also be alternative to currency.
- Result: 12.7 million of Ethers (currency of Etherium) or 150 millions of dollars
 Example: when you go to cinema, you buy a ticket which includes not only the
right to see the movie, but also free coke and popcorns: once inside you show your
 ticket to get the drink and popcorn. In this case, money to buy ticket is ether,
whereas the ticket is a token.
- Functioning: Anyone could present his/her project to the community and get it
funded by DAO
 Anyone who has bought tokens, has a right to vote a project and receive a
reward in case the supported project earned money. 11 000 investors.
But, hackers appeared:
 Stolen tokens.
 Hacker asked DAO smart contract to give him money back many times, before
the smart contract could update its balance: So the contract did not “know” that it
gave money back already and that it was repeatedly executing the same operation.
 It was possible because of two problems:
o Possibility of someone adopting this method of hacking was not foreseen in
the code of the smart contract.
o Failure-oriented design of smart contract: first money, then update of its
balance.
 Solution: Forks or change to blockchain’s protocol
o Soft fork: is an upgrade to the blockchain which is still compatible with the
previous blokchain.
o Hard fork: radical upgrade which can invalidate all the previous transactions
and blocks
1. It can, but not necessarily has to do it
2. It requires everyone within the blockchain to upgrade to the newest
version
3. It separates the new blockchain from the older one.
 Etherium DAO decision: hard fork. That is, rewriting blockchain protocol
to get the money back which lead to the existential problem:
• Split of the community between those who accepted the fork (Etherium)
and those who didn’t (Etherium Classic)
• Why there were those who did not accept the fork solution?
Because fork solution is against the idea of blockchain as imutable: The
errors in code should be assumed and corrected, but if the Smart contract
had flaws and the community was late to correct these flaws and someone
used these flaws, then the community must take it on board but cannot
prevent the third party from getting the Benefit. Hacker ethics.

Metaverse

What is metaverse?
Some concepts:

Virtual (VR): physical interface (headset) leads the person to interactive virtual
environment, which the user can experience as if it was real.

Augmented (AR): interface (glasses, smart phone) that enriches what a person sees
naturally with digital content, so there is no new environment, but a digitally upgraded
version of the one the person is in physically: Remember a PokemonGo?

Mixed (MR): mixture of VR and AR where digital objects of augmented reality would
interact with the objects of virtual reality. In case of AR, the digital objects cannot interact
with the objects of the physical world.

Extended (XR): physical reality, VR, AR and MR all mixed together, which the goal of
making the user unable to distinguish between them, which would make the user
experience them all together and all at the same time: right now not yet feasible.

Inmersive technology

Can describe by:

- Immersion: feels like being there in person.
- Presence: this alternative world feels very real.
- Emboidment: There is an avatar through which to experience this world as if a
person were experience on his/her own.

Turns the person from passive observer into an active participant. But to do that, it must
monitor him/her.

Immersive reality can be used for

- Entertainment: games, concerts live.
- Work: group work in a virtual meeting.
- Education: medicine, restauration, crafts, mechanics
- Social interactions: interaction with others, shared experiences.
- Healthcare: anxiety treatment and other mental disorder treatment.

Metaverse problems
Built on the old ones: online plataforms, AI, and virtual realities. We should have learnt
that if we leave technology in the hands of a private sector, sooner or later the public
good is no longer a priority.
Now we have time to prepare for metaverse and experience with online plataforms. i.e.
What can we do so that the metaverse would not be in the hands of the selected few
companies?

Avatars
Person’s chosen representative in metaverse or online persona. Is the users virtual
representation: grants a level of anonymity.

Privacy threats

Biometric psychography = biometrics and psychographic information. Psychographic

information is metrics that evaluate consumer’s behaviour, opinions, etc. through his
cognitive attributes, like emotions, values, and attitudes.

Biometric Psychographic
For the first time we can discover sensitive personal data based on how a person engages
with technology, how he/she looks at it, reacts to it, even when these reactions are out of
a person’s control.
 This raises serious problems of:
• Consent
• Threats of manipulation and abuse
• Personal data infringements
•...

Difference from biometrics

Biometric tracking techniques:

- Eye tracking and pupil response that reveal to whom a person is sexually attracted,
what we look at, how we feel by looking at something.
- Facial scans that can identify 7 emotions: anger, surprise, joy, contempt, disgust,
sadness, fear.
- Galvanic skin response: changes in the sweat gland activity that responds to the
emotional state or stress.
- Electromyography (EMG): electric activity of muscles and nerves: how tense your
muscles are when you see X?
- Electrocardiography (ECG): electric activity of the heart (measured through
electrodes that inform about heartbeat).
- Electroencephalography (EEG): electric activity of the brain which shows brain
waves that can reveal the state of mind and show one’s cognitive load.

 Virtual reality games: Produce certain effects on the user, such as: increased heart
beat, moisture of skin, dilated pupils of eyes. All these bodily reactions are recorded by
headsets, glasses, gloves, or other interfaces that connect a person to the virtual reality.

Google v/s immersive technology

Google: understand its users based on the searches he or she types into the field of
search. These actions we control.

Immersive technologies: understand its users based on at what the user looks, for how
long and how his/her body reacts to what he/she sees. These actions we do not control.

Virtual reality devices can also track where a user is looking at and what attracts his or her
attention, identifies what kind of reaction that something has on a user: scared,
enthusiastic, curious, discovers what stimulates the user to react.

:::> These means that All this information can be sold to other companies so as to push a
person to consume more of something that is identified as belonging to the spectrum of
user’s likings:
o What has made his/her heart beat faster, skin moisture, pupils dilatate?
o What could make his/her heart beat faster, ...?
 These characteristics can also reveal much more than consumer
preferences. This data can reveal person’s sexual orientation, mental
health, drug use, physical problems, and generally speaking, psychological
profiles.

AIA (Parliament’s version) on new biometric data, which shows EP awareness of the issue:

Biometric data (version of European Commission) and Biometrics-based data (addition by

EU Parliament): “Biometrics- based data are additional data resulting from specific
technical processing relating to physical, physiological or behavioural signals of a natural
person, such as facial expressions, movements, pulse frequency, voice, key strikes or gait,
which may or may not allow or confirm the unique identification of a natural person.”

*The German researchers have proved the link between a person’s performance in the VR
game with the risk of developing Alzheimer’s desease: Playing games then sometimes
might reveal to game provider with some very sensitive data about a player*

Main rule of digital world: More data = better services

What is different with the immersive technologies is that the data that was early
inaccessible, becomes accessible and we have no control over whether to deliver it or not.
We cannot control our hearts, eye movement. No technology before could have access to
our essence, our personality.

Neurorights

Electroencephalography (EEG): electric activity of the brain which shows brain waves that
can reveal the state of mind and show one’s cognitive load.
- Focus on the least explored place of the universe, or at least one of the least
understood places of the universe.
- It is also about our freedom, self- determination, self-governance.
- Human brain/mind: our bodies can be controlled by others, our minds not. To
which we access with the help of neuroscience combined with all that the
emerging technologies have to offer
- Activities:
o Register brain activity.
o Intervene, modify, change brain activity.
- Discoveries and (invasive or not invasive) explorations of the brain/mind
o Brain-Computer interfaces
o Brain-prothesis interfaces
o Neural implants
o Nootropics: drugs, suplements, etc.. that improve cognitive functions
(attention, memory, creativity, motivation in healthy individuals)
VS.
o With how little we know about the brain and how long it takes to discover,
develop, and test these advancements, and how dangerous it is.

A paradigm shift from scientific inquiry and medical treatment to commodity

To open these enhancements to even those who are considered “normal” or healthy. That
is: not ill, not old, not injured, but, who wants and can afford it.

What is that a person wants? The expectations are to think faster, be more inventive,
creative, resourceful, perceptive, be better. With respect to his/her previous self and/or
with respect to others. Able to do things that normally are not posible or that others
cannot do, enjoy new experiences in the alternative realities.
Neuralink: Elon Musk’s experiments
- Goal: to connect brain to computers (broadly understood) “to sync our brain with
AI”
- Means: implants (chips) in the cortex
- Methodology: intention-decoding algorithms
- Able to turn intention (to move a hand, talk, ...) into command for a
computer/prothesis/mobile devices/...
- Results: work in progress.

If Elon Musk achieves what he is aiming at, the experience of Metaverse would be:
Instant, accessible from anytime and anywhere, without any boundaries, consents;
completely immersive, with no difference to the experiences in the real life.

Thanks to these advancements, it might be soon possible to access—Collect—Share —

Manipulate the information in our brain at any time. In addition:
o invade our personal (the most intimate!) sphere
o cause unintentional physical or psychological harm
o influence our behaviour
 Is any of this compatible with the human rights?  5 neurorights or the rights of the
brain to stay the way it is:
1. Right to mental privacy: Privacy of cerebral data, which could lead to
understanding of person’s thoughts; access to subconsciousness (what you are not
aware of).Is there anything more private than person’s mind?
o The right to have a control over our neuronal data and the information
about our mental states and processes that can be obtained from this data
o Not to be manipulated, stimulated, recognized, ... on the basis of this data
o It should be always us who make decisions whether to share this data or
not, with whom, for whom long, for what purposes, etc.
o Not only physical, but also mental privacy
2. Right to identity: Our I is built in our brain: access to brain means access to
person’s understanding of himself/herself. Should a person be permitted to modify
it? Or should the integrity of one’s self be protected?
o What is being protected is the sense of self that we have.
Neurotechnologies might (willingly or unwillingly) disrupt, alter or in other
way interfere with it.
o Would it mean to prohibit neurotechnologies altogether?
o Need for precautionary principle:
• In case of doubt, better not to proceed or proceed with extreme
caution.
• Better safe than sorry.
 3. Right to free will or the right to agency: Freedom to take decisions and actions and
not be manipulated under no circumstances (even if one wants to be
manipulated?)
o We make the decision (and nobody else)
o No manipulation with the help of neurotechnologies which can affect’s
persons thoughts, memories, emotions, behaviour.

4. Right to equal access to mental augmentation: Reference to sensorial and

cognitive enhancement through broadband, algorithms, databases, Internet (Elon
Musk?), which should prevent the humanity from being split into enhanced and
enhanced-nots.
5. Freedom from algorithmic bias: Freedom from all the “classical” bias of race, sex,
origin, etc. that we have experienced with many technologies (and without
technologies too).

Digital ID Online
Digital ID as a trace of what we have done and do online (web search, purchases,
downloads, likes on FB, photos, tweets, etc). We leave information about ourselves on
each app, e-commerce website, social network, so we loose control over this information.

We already started to loggin in in different websites with our Google, FB, Apple or other
IDs: Yet it still does not mean that we control it, it is still under control of Google, FB,
Apple, etc.

Importance of digital ID in metaverse

- Digital ID in metaverse is what a person’s avatar is doing: this generates avatar’s
digital ID that reflects the ID of its user.
o Avatar’s privacy is its user’s privacy
o Avatar’s ID is its user’s ID
- Unique digital ID—embodied by avatar—permits to move from one metaverse to
another: Seemless and unified—rather than fragmented—experience.
- Of course, one can have different avatars and different identities, yet the idea is
that it would be easier (and— perhaps?—less schizophrenic) to have one.

Future criminal activities related to one’s identity:

- User ID theft
 Forms of phishing and other criminal activities
 Extorsion to get it back
- Hijacking of user’s account
 Extorsion to get it back
- Duplication of avatars to commit crimes disguised as fake identities.
- Protection of honor
Solution: Sovereign Digital Identity (Blockchain)
Other problematic issues
1. The human brain processes the experience in the virtual world the same as it
processes real life experiences: That is to say, hippocampus responds similarly to
both experiences.
Therefore, human body too, responds to virtual experiences similarly to the way it
would respond the similar experience in the real world.

What happens then, is that nothing really happens to you in immersive world, but
it does feel real: Your feelings can have physical consequences though: you can get
scared that much in the virtual world that you will get a heart attack in the real
one.

2. The already well known yet insufficiently dealt with legal problems: Harassment
and new versions of: Physical harassment, Verbal harassment, and Sexual
harassment.

Further threats
- Digital divide: we broaden it rather than close it.
- Terrorism and radicalization
- Child abuse: new space for predators and insufficient controls to protect under-age
minors from entering the Metaverse.
- Frauds related to consumer protection, but also other kinds of frauds related to
manipulation, vulnerabilities, or lack of knowledge.

Avatar legal responsibility, personhood, and relationships

Legal problems are not only about what can be done to you as an owner of avatar, but
also what for you could use an avatar: To infringe the law, to commit a crime, to steal, to
assault.
 Legal responsibility of avatars? Remember the legal personhood issue with robotics:
Where does a human legal person ends? Would it include an avatar?
Not only problems, but also relationships that have legal consequences (in the real
world): i.e. Marriage, adoption, etc.

Quantum Computing

Quantum theory
Is based on (OJO, lo va a preguntar):
1. Superposition: atoms can be in a different states at the same time.
Put differently: there is a range of states a particular system can be in (A, B, C, …X),
and when a system is in one state (A), there is such a relationship between the
states, that the system can be considered also to be—at least partially—in any
other given state.
2. Entanglement: the distance does not matter, the particles keep being connected:
o Particles’ behavior is correlated to each other regardless the distance
o Correlation without communication: particles are correlated but do no
communicate with each other.
 3. Tunnelling: particle can overcome an energy barrier—pass through it— even
though the energy barrier is superior to its own:
 Particles as waves are not disrupted nor stopped by the barrier. Put differently:
tunneling represents a probability to find the particle on the other side of the
barrier.

*No importante según la profe* Quantization: measuring quantities in discrete (not

continuous) units, i.e. an assumption that energy can be absorbed or released only in tiny,
differential (discrete) units:
• Max Plack used it to explain the properties of blackbody radiation: There are small tiny
tiny units of energy that could explain the light that is generated by the black body
• Classical physics could not explain why black body—filled with
light and heated afterwards—begins to glow
• (pure physics…)

Quantum paradigm shift

Classical Physics:
- In a macroscopic level (chair, aircraft, needle)
- Based on certainty– momentum and position of an object are measurable and
related. Momentum is a measurement of mass in motion.
- Particles—such as electrons—are particles (based on energy and vectors), waves—
such as light—are waves (based on amplitude, length, travelling direction, …).
On a macro level, there is an explanation for everything, yet on a micro level the questions
were emerging that classical physics could not explain. Hence the laws that govern macro-
level could not explain micro-level.

Quantum Physics:
- Focus: nature
- Level: micro (atomic/subatomic). Applies to and explains: atoms, particles,
molecules.
- Based on inherent uncertainty: momentum and position of particle are not related
and you cannot know neither momentum nor position with precision at any given
time (this is superposition).
 Only probabilities apply. That is to say, the result is a probability calculated
based on the combination of different states.
- Particles can have wave-like features (act like waves), and waves can have particle-
like features (act like particles): particles are not only and just particles, and waves
are not only and just waves.
- Einstein in 1905 quantized the light: light is not a wave only, but also is made of
particles that he called photons (that is to say, it comes in units).

Quantum computing

Also based in:

1. Superposition: different states at the same time:
o Which in quantum information processing translates into qubits, that can be 1, 0
and 1 and 0 at the same time v/s Classic computing is based on bits, that can be
either 1 or 0 (but not both)
2. Entanglement: correlation between particles at a distance
o In quantum computing this translates into correlation between qubits at a distance
which will permit to increase the quantity of qubits you can process at any time
o Much quicker computation.
3. Tunnelling: fast transmission of enormous amounts of data, beyong 5G connectivity:
o 5G transmits up to 20 gigahertz
o Today it is difficult to go beyond 100 gigahertz in frequency for a transfer

Who is setting the standards of QC?

No technology is neutral, but charged with our values, interests, and represent value
judgements, which become enshrined—written almost in stone—in equipments,
materials, tools, procedures, protocols.

Remember Internet: standards set by the US. for a long time standard Internet protocols
were available only in English and US set the decision making related to many other
aspects of Internet to.
 Results: Quantum calculations are based on probabilities: probabilities also mean
mistakes. What is the degree of probability that we could/should choose to accept as a
correct answer? Who decides?
- Degrees of certainties different for different calculations?
- Probabilities of correctness in traffic management are not the same as in
healthcare.

Shor’s algorithm and cryptography

Classical encryption is based on prime factorization (RSA system):
Take two big prime numbers and multiple them: what you have is a number that you
cannot defactorize with non-quantum (classic) algorithms, which means you cannot
discover which prime numbers were multipled to have the final result.

Shor’s algorithm can do that—that is to say, it can discover which prime numbers were
used to get that final result—which means that it can decrypt anything you have
encrypted with RSA. That is to say, digital signatures, secure communications, financial
transactions, e-voting.
Shor’s algorithm it is not a threat as for today: we still lack sufficiently powerful quantum
Computers. Yet, we could collect encrypted data now and decrypt it later on, once we
have these computers “Bad people could do that too”.

Quantum Imperative:
Legal principles that could guide the regulation of quantum computing: Jeutner, V.
Quantum Imperative: Addressing the Legal Dimension of Quantum Computing (2021).

Three Rules: The regulators must ensure that the development of quantum computers:

1. Does not create or exacerbate inequalities: Haves (access to) quantum computers
and have nots (access to) quantum computers:
o From micro (individual) to macro (State) level: Global North versus Global
South
o Between private and public sectors
o Between private sector stakeholders: Powerful are even more powerful
(Frightful five are even more frightful)
 Should we rethink technology patents (IP Protection).
 Suggestion: access to some of the quantum computing capabilities to
companies, individuals, states.

2. Does not undermine individual autonomy: One of the most important values of
our societies.
Quantum computing—and in particular its promises in terms of cybersecurity
threats—might threaten it through the easier access to privacy and personal data
protection:
 o New possibilities for the States to control the citizens, build barriers for
communication, fragment Internet and create national networks which
would not allow free communication and access to information.
o New possibilities for the high-tech to control consumers
 Solution: if we put limitations on arms export, should we also put limitations to
quantum algorithm exportation?
First steps: The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms
and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies:
o Not legally binding agreement that pushes forward transparency on
exportations of arms and technologies (only exportations!)
o Part 5: cryptographic information security technologies includethe systems
that are designed or modified to use or perform quantum cryptography”

3. Does not occur without consulting those whose interests they affect.
Standard setting in quantum computing is still in the hands of a few
 Diversity and inclusiveness: Yet to build technology for everyone, we need to
involve as many stakeholders as possible.
 Democratic oversight and control as basis for quantum development:
o We have learnt some hard lessons with Internet, online platforms
o Currently dealing with AI and blockchain
o What’s forthcoming: metaverse and quantum computing