"Fancy meeting you here, Ara Rivera…" he reached out my hands and held it a little tighter.
"Ditto…" I replied, still in shock of the turn of events.
Professor Kim as the supervisor, introduced Jung Roo-ni to present his thesis: "The Ethics of Information and Communication Technology on Compromising Privacy and Delimitation of Sensational Media." The thesis committee are: Professor Mads Vestergaard-Nielsen, Faculty of ICT from Department of Engineering; Professor Hong Tae-woon, Head of the Department of Communication; Professor Park Ki-young, Deputy Director College of Humanities and Social Sciences, PhD Fellow Ara Rivera, Department of Humanities; PhD Fellow Lee Chang-wook, Department of Psychology and our guest panelists, PR Director Ku Yeo-Jin, MYP Media and Entertainment; Mr. Nam Jae-woo from NamEsis.
Fate made its first move in letting us meet unexpectedly into this setting. This is another part of our lives that we needed to know about each other. I came to Seoul for this, as a part of the academe and of course, what's fitting way to reintroduce us to each other but to be here. I shook my head in disbelief. It's a very poetic way indeed. Jung Roo-ni took the stand, prepared his Multimedia Presentation and confidently finished presenting. So, now it comes the probationary part, questions and clarifications. We were given 15-minute break to discuss, me and the other fellow on the committee.
He is heading my way, when Ku Yeo-jin cut him off. He looked at me like he desperately wanted to talk to me. It was Mads who approached me.
"How long have you been in Seoul?" he started, still talking in Danish.
"It's been almost a month. I'm going to stay for the whole semester to finish my dissertation."
"There is an organization for Danish expats every Saturday evening, if you wish to come, I will send you the activities…" he is welcoming, and that's probably his signal to get my number.
"That's amazing. How's Tine and the twins?" I asked about his wife, I met them once in an occasion 8 years ago.
"Their great. Tine is working as a consultant."
"How long have you been here?" it's my time to interrogate.
"Almost 3 years. We are at the family residences of the university. Did you get your housing here?"
"Nope. I have a flat in Jongnu-gu".
He invited me to join him when there are meetings arranged by Danish people in Seoul. Although, I really don't feel like identifying myself as Danish, it's probably less lonely to be here if I will attend their meetings, since it I feel that I can relate with them better than trying to find friends in this city right now.
I glance at Jae-woo and he is still talking to Yeo-jin. He caught my eyes and smiled. I know that he is waiting for confrontation right now. But I am trying as much as possible to prolong it. The break is over, and Professor Kim went up to the stand to be the mediator.
The head of the college asked about the relevance of the thesis today and of course Roo-ni answered with the obvious answer that because of the emergence of a globalize world, Information and Communication became a responsibility to those who have the power to use it.
"With great power comes great responsibility right," he added. And people from the audience chuckles. "I believe this thesis, will serve as an ethical manual for those of power to assess on how they can serve further public trust especially when it comes to privacy issues." He has a point.
My turn to verify something, I first looked at Soo-ah and smiled, I can see her uneasy stare. I raised my hand and waited until Prof Kim, recognized me. Roo-ni smiled warmly when he saw me take the microphone, he probably thought I am the friendly face. I can feel everyone's gaze at me now.
"So, for verification, you're aiming that this thesis will be some sort of ethical guide in the IT world in general or only specific to those who control the information and data?"
"I just have a hard time taking the thesis seriously when I already had a problem with the title. I believe it is misleading, as you said, you wanted your thesis to be relevant in a way that it will be an ethical handbook to those people who have power over information in general. So, you're saying that it will be an ethical guide for the "people" in control. Your title is suggesting that what you write is with ethical basis, while I read through, the almost 100 pages of your arguments, I cannot pinpoint the most relevant premise as to how, in fact, your suggestions are not just mere opinions. I mean, who gave you the power to come out with such guidelines? Weren't you being hypocritical in neutralizing the power of the people in control yet, you wanted to control them yourself? And the fact that you included 'compromising and delimitation' in your title, already add up to the impression of shoving us your judgment. It might be wise to have this kind of title for news article to make it catchy but for an academic journal, a PhD thesis for this matter, it is kind of misleading especially when it cannot be supported by the 100 pages of words that follows. The question is, do you really think that your claim of your thesis' relevance earlier, is still relevant now?" That's a mouthful, and I can see Roo-ni's smile is fading. I glance at Prof. Kim and he's also worried. He is after all his supervisor.
Then, Jae-woo also raised his hands.
"I agree with Miss Rivera on her observation. The people in IT world probably have that power you are talking about, but who gave them that much power? It's not something they asked. It was being given to them without consent, they have the prerogative to use it, since it was handed to them. It would be interesting to layout the groundwork of ethics on how they could handle this so-called power, but wouldn't it be more the responsibility for the users to understand better what they are entrusting us before asking a lot?"
"The thing is, using technology is not necessary to human existence. Correct me if I'm wrong, but until capitalism tells you about this and that being necessary, technology, as a part of human condition is not necessarily part of our basic need. Well, probably it's important for socializing and keeping sane in this modern world, but you are now trudging a path that concerns another concept, which is capitalism and the intrinsic urge of man in the fulfillment of pleasure." I paused, to look at Roo-ni and Prof Kim. I felt bad, probably because I am now going to make it hard to my friend.
The defense ended, but everyone is still lingering on my question. I reach out to Roo-ni and I can feel how dejected he is. I made his thesis irrelevant. He could have just cried rhetorical fallacy, but I am the only Philosophy major in here. I guess this is what gives Philosophy majors the edge when it comes to debate and discussion. We know our Socratic method; we always define every concept before putting it in our paper.
The discussion of grading ensues and most agreed to fail the thesis for lack of relevance.
Yeo -jin is particularly argumentative and stubborn in failing the defense. She's attractive, I can't say she's pretty though. She has that mainstream face that gets more pleasant while you stare. I felt something is going on between her and Jae-woo. The way she's being catty towards me seems like I'm getting the attention that she might think is meant to be hers.
"We are the one who lead the topic of the defense, like as if there's only one way to go with it. But we have been too caught up with the relevance of it as a guiding ethics that we fail to comprehend the real issue. You ask about the practicality of his thesis or its subject to the real world? In what world are you talking about exactly? The world where technology is the only way to go or the world where people use their time and effort and skill to come out with such compelling research as to why technology should be guided according to human ethics, in the first place?"
"But isn't the purpose of the defense is to defend your thesis no matter what, since we have the impression that you know all the weakness and strengths of your thesis, no matter where the committee takes it, shouldn't he know how to steer it back to where it should have been in the first place?" now Jae-woo is trying to question my argument. I accidentaly glared at him. Is he trying to side with his girlfreind now?
"Let's say he tried, but the mere fact that we are from the start holding the steering wheel, he didn't stand the chance…if you have read the arguments from the thesis, it was meant to just prove the need of ethical guidance within the field, the relevance that we wanted to prove, is not really a relevant argument at all…"
I gave Roo-ni my passing grade. I saw suspicious gaze from both Yeo-jin and Jae-woo. I might not be persuasive enough with my argument, but the point is Roo-ni failed in the rhetorical argument that transpired over at the defense. But then his thesis is a very sound and valid proposal. We all head back to the thesis room to announce the passing of Dr. Jung Roo-ni PhD. The congratulatory cheer followed.