‘Where is the beginning? When is the beginning? Is there any beginning at all?’ (bo Odar, 2019). It is impossible for me to say when the idea for this research, which emerged as something diametrically different from what it ended up being, was born, but if I had to define it, I would say it was in Ph.D. Silvia Inés Molina y Vedia del Castillo's Research Seminar, when we were reviewing her book ‘Change: a transdisciplinary vision’ (2019). As she spoke, I wrote ‘Media Polyphony’ on a sheet of paper and began to sketch a little mind map: it was a paradox of predestination.

 

In the TV series Dark, physics professor H.G. Tannhaus, a character who is also a watchmaker and author of the book Eine Reise durch die Zeit, explains that in the predestination paradox ‘an object or information from the future is sent into the past. This creates an endless cycle in which the object ceases to have a real origin: it exists without ever having been created’ (bo Odar, 2019).

 

Simply expressed, I can say that I finished understanding this research when I finished writing it up in its entirety. Professor Tannhaus would say that the thesis that is currently being read travelled back in time. ‘It is all a matter of origin’ (bo Odar, 2019). The pieces to assemble this puzzle were provided to me by different people whom I deeply admire and must thank for their light to understand this paradox: Ph.D. Gabriela Elisa Sued, Ph.D. María Susana González Reyna, Ph.D. César Augusto Rodríguez Cano, Ph.D. Gloria Valek Valdés, and most especially Ph.D. Susana García Ávila for her guidance, patience and absolute understanding.

 

One of the premises of the book Eine Reise durch die Zeit is that in the lunisolar cycle, from a cosmic point of view, everything repeats every 33 years, ‘the time in which the moon's orbit synchronises with that of the sun. But 33 is more than that. We find it everywhere. Jesus performed 33 miracles. There are 33 litanies of the angels. 33 are Dante's chants in purgatory and 33 in paradise’ (bo Odar, 2017). The adventure of this research I did with the company of three people (my lecturers and my thesis advisor), the theoretical framework of this thesis is supported by three bases, three social systems and the structure of the research is composed of three parts. Furthermore, I did a research stay in semester 3 at the Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien) at the age of 33 under the supervision of three persons: Ing.-dipl. Daniel Pahr, MSc Henry Ehlers and Dr.techn. Eduard Gröller, who at the first group meeting quoted a phrase of Einstein's and with his austrian plain honesty contributed to broaden my outlook and sublimate my ideas.

 

To you, Daniel, Henry and Dr. Eduard, thank you for your blind trust in me and my project, for your guidance and valuable input, mainly in the operationalisation and reconfiguration part of the research protocol. Thanks also to the wonderful Research Unit of Computer Graphics at the Institut für Visual Computing and Human-Centered Technology of the Faculty of Informatics, especially to Manuela and Maath for their suggestions in the meetings where we could meet.

 

Above all, thanks to my mother for giving me the life, independence, love and courage to conquer everything that has crossed my mind; to my siblings, for their unconditional love and support at all times; and to my uncles and cousins, for helping me to weave a support network that has allowed me to move forward despite any adversity. Thanks also to you, grandma Malena, grandma Flavia, uncle Ushu, and all my loved ones who are no longer with me, for your infinite love: with your physical departure I thought I would not be able to go on, but your constant company has helped me not to give up and to keep my promise.

 

Thanks, always, to all my friends, especially in this chapter of my life to Jhonatan and Alessio, in whom I have found endless motivation and complicity, and whom I want to have in my life forever. Thanks also to Steve and Ivan for their contribution to make this possible.

 

Thank you, Lucas and Marlene for walking beside me, laughing and talking about life on the streets of Wien, and to Daniel and Henry for making me feel at home and toasting to life with a cup of Glühwein at the Karlsplatz Christkindlmarkt.

 

Thanks to UNAM and the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences for accepting a project out of the ordinary, for changing my life and helping me to confirm where I want to lead my future. Thanks also to the Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnologías (Conahcyt) for making this dream possible.

 

Und danke, Wien, die du so schön bist, dass du mich im Jahr 2020 für drei Tage und im Jahr 2023 für drei Monate empfangen hast. Danke, dass du mich in all deiner Pracht umarmt hast hast und dich mir im Traum gezeigt hast, um mir meinen Weg zu zeigen, der mit Rosen aus dem Kristallsamen geschmückt sein wird, den ich in deinem Volksgarten gepflanzt habe, bevor ich mich das letzte Mal von dir verabschiedete.

 

Noam Chomsky said that ‘if you assume that there is no hope, then you guarantee that there is no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then, perhaps, you can contribute to making a better world’ (Ross, 2016); because only the brave, those who believe in their ideas - and will do so until death - can change things: they will be remembered.