After reading the everyware theses for this week, I can’t lie, I’m a little worried. I hope I never see the day when my refrigerator has talked to my bathroom scale and tells me I’m getting fat and need to run more and eat better. I mean, how guilty will that make people feel? I know it would be useful in a health sense, but I can’t see very many people buying into that kind of ubiquitous computing. It just makes you feel bad. It’s like the gym coach, physician, and mother all in one, stuck to your refrigerator door and your bathroom mirror, and what’s more, it nags and nags, but it never goes away. Sounds like everyone’s worst nightmare right? And besides, what does the magic mirror tell the clinically obese every morning? I bet its not “Try adding leafy greens to today’s meals”, if you know what I mean. I just think that particular idea would be really demoralizing, and I don’t think it would change the fact that
On a separate and unrelated note, I never considered the fact that the social security number is a national identity number. I know, it’s fairly obvious, but who really thinks about that? I just wonder how it came into existence in the first place-a national identity number sounds entirely too close to the rfid tag identification systems, and I think the evidence speaks for itself that that hasn’t been a very popular idea. I can’t imagine how the American public would let itself be identified individually at all times. If that isn’t an invasion of privacy I don’t know what is. I guess that it’s just evidence that there might be a future of continual identification by rfid tags at all times after all. Kind of scary, isn’t it?
5 comments:
I actuall ythought the refrigerator idea was a really needed technology especially in this country were the weight of individuals has been on the rise. The people who buy these products would be the ones who need the extra help in losing weight.
The more important concept in this concept is how the home is networking itself in more ways than two PC's. Think of how all these products are intertwining with each other on a more personal scale.
It's true while I think it would be nice to have a health managing system, all of adopters of the system will be monitored at all times leading to a period of constantly watching. I don't want to necessarily know exactly what I'm doing to my body when I know I might not be eating right. Will there be an alarm that goes of that says "too much salt today, consume more water to balance out the krystal hot sauce." This type of system will definitely need a cut-of control so on those off days you don't have to be reminded of how much of a certain food you overate. The system has promise but It seems like it can become a burden.
I'm with you on the cautious element of technology and how the 'seamless' integration might nor always be a good thing.
On the other issue, I think every citizen having a national identity is definitely going to happen. It already exists in Hong Kong and many other coutries around the world. It doesn't seem that scary to me. For starters, it allows for better assessment from an economies macro stand point as well. And, the United States does monitor most of the acitivites now... and for obvious reasons too!
I'm reminded too much of I, Robot when the machines took over and started to decide what was best for humans. I mean denying me a cheeseburger is one thing but will they actually take things out of reason. If I can hardly stand some people telling me what to do, then the computers will stand an even smaller chance against my will.
Concerning SSN, yes, they are a National Identity Number. I was tagged from birth and will forever be so in the eyes of the government. They won't go away with RFID but will simply be the serial number in that tag. Or your SSN will be the serial number. Instead of producing a card, you'll swipe your wrist over the pad and your identity is everywhere.
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