Forgetfulness, between rights, duties and technological possibilities

Forgetting is fundamental in all human practices, both individual and collective, and – even if with different consequences – it always has represented a relevant cognitive and cultural mechanism to select and filter knowledge. The upheavals of the digital turn in contemporary society have strongly affected this aspect, by demanding a redefinition of what it means to forget and what new ethical and cultural implications derive from this. While until recently it was inconceivable to conceive of a “perfect” memory, where nothing is erased, the Internet and all digital tools have shown us that this paradigm can be altered: technological devices potentially keep track of everything and manage to store any information (even if we do not always have control over where, how and when the information is stored and who has the privileges to keep /delete this information). Thus, today, the issue seems to be the opposite: being able to erase. Following this reasoning, various questions related to the protection and selection of data become central, as never in the past. This project seeks to investigate this new configuration of forgetting not only considering the implications connected to the digital, but also the legal, psychological and cultural ones. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the project aims to answer the following research questions: - Forgetting and records: although it seems paradoxical to combine forgetfulness with registration, in contemporary society it is urgent to reflect on how continuous recordability transform any information into a trace, into data that cannot be forgotten. - Forgetting and agency: to what extent can we talk about the controllability, manipulability or self-determination of forgetting on behalf of subjects? In the systems of continuous digital recording and archiving in which we are immersed, what possibilities and what guarantees do subjects have of being able to forget and make people forget information that they do not want to keep? - Forgetting and the law: in what sense is it possible to speak from a philosophical and juridical point of view of the right to memory and the right to forget? In recent years there has been much talk of a duty to remember, but is there also a duty to forget? In particular, the research will be conducted by three units which, albeit in synergy, will address different aspects of forgetting: - the University of Bologna focuses on the semiotic and cultural dimensions of forgetting; - the University of Milan focuses on the legal dimension of forgetting; - the University of Turin focuses on the digital dimension of forgetting. The expected results will contribute to the advancement of research on at least two of the main objectives of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), particularly, on the relationship between humanistic culture and social transformation such as the one connected to digital transition.