It seems that a lot of the posts this week are considering the lack of interest from our generation in this "everyware" technology...
I think that this is where it starts though. We all see this advancement in technology as unnecessary, as did generations before us about the technology we have everywhere today. Years ago people were fine with horses. Years ago people were fine with candles. They didn't dream of the need to connect instantaneously to anyone across the world, or to be able to send packages to China over night.
I think to achieve this ubiquitous "Everyware" our generation is curious about it will take time because it's not magically "poof" then it is here. We want that universal remote, or that intercom system, or this or that...and then in 20 years our kids will want this and that...and eventually it will lead to this "future" we see in movies. It's so weird to think about this technology just being everywhere because for us it is unnecessary. I don't care about a building that automatically adjusts to my preferences...but someday people will.
No one generation dreams of this sudden dramatic change we imagine is possible. It's about taking baby steps towards that future. Which is what leads to these advancements...we dream them up as crazy, then suddenly 30 years later...there they are.
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4 comments:
You make a very good point, and I had failed to examine it from that point of view at first. Our parents did not think that they needed a personal computer, or the internet when it was first happening, but I really wanted those things and so they let me have them. Now, my parents are so reliant on the internet that they could never see it any other way. It is really astounding how once we are used to something, we can never imagine life with out it, and when something is off in the distance, we do not want it. I don't know if it is really that we do not want the new technology, or if we just don't want it because we know we can't have it. New technologies seem unnecessary at first, but once we are used to all of the convinces that they provide, it is almost impossible to turn back.
I agree with the fact that it will not happen instantaneously. I mean we dont really absolutly need any of these new technologies to live. I mean cave men were probably really happy dudes. They couldnt even speak and they just carved things out of rocks all day. I personally think that these new technologies are going to make our lives even more easy and convienent. I will take them and use them for sure. I dont want to be the dad that is out of the technlogy circle mumbling that he does not need this new and new that.
certainly these technologies we're working on will make life easier and more convenient, but I wouldnt jump so quick to say we dont really need these things to survive. from reading recent new communication texts(radio, tv, internet, etc), "survival" or "being a survivor" shows up quite often, is clearly still of public concern and likely always will be; im thinking specifically of rock and roll and pop-music, but there are many others. Any how,on a macro scale we arent that far from the caveman days ... I like forrest's comment about carving things out of rocks all day.
I see the lack of interest in everyware in light of the lack of understanding and practical application present in public discourse. I think we should convery the advantages and benefits of an everyware system to as wide an audience as possible; making sure not to side-step the potential disadvantages and implications of said system.
Quote:
" it is not unreasonable to hope that ICTs might make a positive contribution to meeting the conditions of democratic politics and citizenship, it would be unreasonable to presume that this outcome is prefigured in the technology itself, ...It is quite conceivable, and maybe even likely, that the dominant mainstream deployments of ICTs will serve to reinforce and even extend the disproportionate power enjoyed by economic and other elites; to diminish the already minimal leisure enjoyed by the vast majority of people while heightening their experience of material insecurity; to enhance the culture of disengagement and private diversion from public citizenship; and to accelerate the privatization, commercialization and administration of the public sphere. "
Sorry that's kinda long, I just yanked it from the last paragraph of this Canadian dude's presentation to the Society for Philosophy and Technology
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