02 April 2007
Ubiquitous Already?
Reading Everware is not really getting redundant as much as I'd like to think so. The readings touch the same topics but the ways to look at them differ. Fifty-two suggests that ubiquitous computing is already embedded in society. I honestly do not find this hard to believe. From the smart cams at Vegas that search databases to identify cheats to the Exxon Speedpass that pretty much brings up your info on the spot are as commonplace as ever now. My fears escalate when I remember that these devices and technologies are indeed hooked up to the network. By the network I do mean the vast web of cyberspace ready to gobble up and permanently seal your involvement in certain activities as soon as you hit enter or send (possibly before). So are they really spying on us? Not really I think. My day to day dealings are too unimportant in the scope of things. Fifty-four however states that Everyware will fully mature in about ten years. But I’d like to think of it as a child. True, while the danger is small while the evil is young but to me, maturation is simply a time to collect and gather all necessary information.
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6 comments:
I think there is a very fine line between spying and having available information. The problem lies in who uses the information, and how you protect your information for that very reason. I agree with you that we as individuals are fairly unimportant in the grander scheme of things, but the simple fact that the data is available is enough. If it's there, it can be misused. That doesn't necessarily mean it will be, but it is possible, which means it will happen to some people. Of course, nobody wants to be the poor sucker whose identity is stolen, and therein lies the problem. If everyware is really going to mature in ten years, then we are going to have to work our tails off to provide safety nets if you will, to protect ourselves and our information from other users, and more frighteningly, from the everyware itself.
For sure there is a fine line between spying and availability of info. but I tend to disagree with your individual day-to-day activities being of little importance. at this point it may not feel like that big of a deal, but maybe even within the next year this thought could come back to bite.
Whether the information is available to everyone or not, it can still pose a threat. for example, the business school now suggests graduating seniors delete their Myspace account when they're interviewing. Thats not such a big deal since you can still delete the account, but a lot of other info about your life is not available for you to edit; or even see for that matter. What one person knows about me, I probably don't want everyone on the planet knowing. and when the market is free to make those decisions for me, the problem is compounded. as we read in Everyware 51, user experience is rarely a factor.
seemingly, to benefit from everyware, aside from the necessary infrastructure, one must suit up like a marine ready to go to war.
Another example along these same lines is how daily activities - ones we likely dont think twice about - can have negative psychological effects on our lives. You mentioned the Exxon Speed-Pass. Im not gunna talk about the annoying voice we hear while filling up gas, but that does have something to do with.
Some may be perfectly straight when it comes to funds, but me, as im sure a lot of college students have a hard time dealing with financial management. Time management also is at play here. We are increasingly taken advantage of by the immediacy of life and necessity of consumption. This touches on Virilio too, this disinformation, when companies roll out a product either without fully testing, or just straight lying about the results because it would harm their ROI. they dont let you know that touch and go POS systems can encourage compulsive spending, especially in the unfamiliar and untrained individual. whether this be an issue of irresponsibility, learning curve, whathaveyou.. it doesn't matter. In other countries - Hitler's Germany or simply less developed nations - where they're more skeptical of technology, they arent so quick to jump on the bandwagon. In much of Germany debit cards are still a novelty, or in Russia, a lot of people are pissed off about google earth; but then again, who has the upper hand? When life is so immediately convenient, we very easily become "convenience victims" if you will.
"convenience victims" funny, this would make corporate america into the criminal, and the rest of the world -including many of americans- the victims.(side note: I may not see it like this if I didnt just pay off a 1300 dollar credit card; my car broke down :)
what do ya'll think? am I just putting my problems on someone else because its easier?
It’s true, there are these pieces of ubiquitous technology all around us today. I guess these are just the stepping stones of are not to distant future of a ubiquitous world. There isn’t too much of a difference between surveillance cameras being able to identify us by our faces from a database to eye scanners instantly detecting us at entrances at almost every location like on the movie Minority report. We are obviously no too far away from this future that Everyware has been describing and as he clearly states, we have the capability to handle such a future which is interesting to me because I am actually looking forward to this technological future. But Jake is right, this future is still in the growing process and beginning to mature which makes it the perfect time to build and attain a solid foundation for our Ubiquitous world.
It’s true, there are these pieces of ubiquitous technology all around us today. I guess these are just the stepping stones of are not to distant future of a ubiquitous world. There isn’t too much of a difference between surveillance cameras being able to identify us by our faces from a database to eye scanners instantly detecting us at entrances at almost every location like on the movie Minority report. We are obviously no too far away from this future that Everyware has been describing and as he clearly states, we have the capability to handle such a future which is interesting to me because I am actually looking forward to this technological future. But Jake is right, this future is still in the growing process and beginning to mature which makes it the perfect time to build and attain a solid foundation for our Ubiquitous world.
While there is no doubt that the government does not need to spy on any regular person, the fact that they could choose to is what has so many people worried. I know my activities on a day to day basis are rather trivial to basically everyone except me, but that does not mean that I want everyone to know about them. If government spying were to become public record, there would probably be a lot of information uncovered by people that are not the government that you really did not want them to know. (Ex. Your parents, ex-girlfriends, ect.)
To me it is not if they are spying on me that matters, but the fact that they can and are allowed to under the law is the thing that scares me.
I agree, there are ubiquitous elements all around us. Some are developing network interactions intelligently with a vastness of information stored online. I do not see this as an evil genius baby but rather a neutral baby that will be molded by its parents, that being the universal consciousness of which the world wide web has arguably become. We should mold the system with care for ourselves and future generations who will have to interact and be effected by the platform of ubiquitous technology we implement universally.
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