Identity, contestability and ethics of unified virtualisation of society

Virtualisation (the replacement of physical representation by bits) in society is placing great pressures on individuals and society. The progressive loss of legal multiple identities raises major ethical and practical implications, and is being accelerated by virtualisation and shifts to anticipatory ´intelligence´ styles of policing and enforcement in place of reliance on common civil law. This is now shifting to the intellectual property (IP) domain as commercial interests gain state coercive powers with the convergence between trade and IP. Lack of contestability is a key theme, and the need to establish contextually separate multiple identities. NGOs need to participate in power balancing polices to address the ethical and power conflicts arising.