Nina da Hora: the voice of change in Brazilian computer science
The computer scientist, still very young, is considered a necessary voice on technological advances in the country
Credit: Disclosure
By: Renato Silva / Lupa do Bem – Favela em Pauta
Often presented as an anti-racist hacker, Ana Carolina da Hora – or Nina da Hora, as she is most known – is, at 26 years old, one of the biggest references when it comes to technology research in Brazil.
Computer scientist, researcher, podcaster, student and critic of topics related to Artificial Intelligence, she recently joined the Election Transparency Commission at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Nina prefers dialogue between different areas and states that “the best definition of myself is when I don’t need to give a closed definition for what I am”.
She currently occupies other important chairs: she is a researcher at the Center for Technology and Society at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (CTS-FGV), a columnist for the MIT Technology Review magazine, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a member of the Security Council at TikTok.
Whether due to the aversion to closed definitions or the yearning for social transformations, Nina’s most common word in an interview is “change”. She says that computer science entered her life through curiosity for everything she saw on TV, in the devices she dismantled, or even when she realized that the technology she saw at school, with friends and on TV was not accessible.
“[Computer science] came into my life in a very critical way. Whenever I had any contact with technology, it generated a question. I asked the questions at home. Many times, my mother didn’t know how to answer, but she gave me back reflections that I was taking in, trying to research, and that was it”, she says.
The mother, a teacher, was important to enhance her curious profile, always questioning and wanting to understand the whys, mainly through reading. “Since I come from a family of teachers, books have always been very close to my daily life. Since I was little, I had the opportunity to do readings that I could ask my mom about. My mother is a Portuguese and literature teacher. So, I had a lot of literature books at home, and I was interested in reading just out of curiosity,” she says.
It was at home that the scientist found references to learn to debate, listen and respect the speeches of her debaters. “Sometimes people see me debating on social media and think it’s just patience, and that’s not all. But mainly because of the relationship I had at home, which taught me to ‘look at it whether you agree or not, you listen so you can build your counterpoint’. If we always assume that we are going to listen in order to respond, we will never be able to listen”, Nina points out.
It is also from the family that the basis for transforming the world around comes from, whether through a real dialogue or through the vision of the world that women need to be in all spaces, especially those of leadership, or even for the lightness and joy of life. “I can’t do anything in my life without smiling. For that to happen, it’s because it won’t be me anymore. Since I was a child, I look at things and try to understand everything with great joy. There are people who say that love moves, in my case what moves me is joy”, says the smiling scientist.
Projects and direction
If as an anti-racist researcher and hacker she resorts to social networks to promote reflections, criticisms and debates with a keen view of the details of new technologies, in her personal parallel projects the scientist develops initiatives that also spread knowledge to her audience – and to whoever may be interested.
In Ogunhê, a podcast with a name that Nina sought authorization from religion to use, she created a platform to present scientists from the African continent through games and interactive narratives. In each episode, there is a dive into the history of a scientist from Africa, as she did in this episode with mathematician, professor and doctor Grace Alele-Williams.
The scientist takes care to explain in detail the name of the podcast and its influence. “The name Ogunhê is a salute to the orixá Ogum, considered the orixá of war, paths and technology in the religions of African origins. I asked for permission, to understand if I could use the name to do it in a way that wouldn’t become pejorative. So, it takes me a while to publicize the episodes for people to understand that it’s not in my time or in their time, it’s in the time that the path is allowing it to be”, she explains.
There is yet another initiative with an air of similarity, but with a touch of interactivity: the Clubinho da Hora, which consists of a series of lives organized by the scientist on Instagram, creating a unique space for interdisciplinarity and reflection.
Usually, in these and other projects by Nina, it is possible to identify a collective thought of spreading and listening to knowledge in increasingly diverse spaces. In relation to the collectivity, she reports that it was something she noticed in herself, with her family, always concerned about how her actions would affect the people in the house.
However, the reflection on collectivity goes deeper: Nina is against the idea of a “leader”, because it reinforces the logic of inequality, where in order to have a leader, someone needs to be at the unequal base. “This sense of collectivity, for me, is when we realize that we cannot be part of this inequality”, she adds.
The change
Despite the aversion to closed definitions, a term that accompanies the researcher is anti-racist hacker. According to her, she may be defined this way because she disagrees with the system put in the world. “I can’t say when I came to understand myself as an [anti-racist hacker]. I think it’s a mixture of experiences”, he says.
Those who follow Nina on social media can see her commenting on decision-making in the world, whether in the political, social or technological environment. She believes that things can no longer be done in secret. “Decisions in technology, in politics, in the world are made behind closed doors. I always found this contradictory in democracy”, he says.
The researcher considers that the path to a desired change lies in the inclusion of black people and people from different social groups, so that diversity can be absorbed by the technology debate and, in this way, produce results.
“Public debate can contribute to digital education as well. Often, people think that they are not able to debate technology topics because they are not in courses, companies or universities. In my view, people who are not in these places are the most important for the debate, as they perceive the technological nuances on a daily basis”, she concludes.
