Gratuitous computing

Contributors: Name(s)

Summary
Pervasive technologies and their negative impacts will increasingly come to be seen as “gratuitous computing,” fueling a broad-based grassroots anti-technology movement.

Overview

Digital, mobile, and pervasive computing technologies are frequently held up as harbingers of a wondrous new era of social connectedness, personal empowerment, economic productivity, convenience, and entertainment. There is no question that digital media, wireless communications, the Internet and the rest of the techno-suspects are transforming many aspects of our lives, often in positive ways.

However, these changes are moving into and through society at a very rapid rate, straining our ability to absorb and understand the implications. These are truly disruptive technologies, and in the process of disruption of industries, social structures, and cultural institutions we are experiencing loss of control, lack of stability, breakdown of traditional expectations and practices, and changes in what it means to be a citizen, an employee, a human.

In the face of such rapid change, we are seeing early signs of discontent with the 'inevitable' march of technology. Knowing (as we do) that technology-driven change is accelerating and poised to become even more pervasive in the next decade, we can easily project a backlash among those most likely to be disempowered by these changes--individuals.

Some possible drivers for this trend include:

* Displacement of workers as digital tech transforms the structure and economics of various industries, resulting in fewer jobs, geographic displaceent, and/or different skills required.
* The surveillance society -- pervasive networked sensing, security cameras, traffic enforcement cams, arphids, internet usage monitoring & historical logs, life recorders...
* Ubiquitous media -- with displays all around us, mobile devices in every pocket, and more of life migrating online, we will be immersed in digital media, and constantly bombarded with targeted advertising, spam, phishing, and all manner of creative come-ons. Internet advertising revenues accounted for approximately 3.7 percent of total U.S. ad spending in 2004, according to a PWC/IAB study; there's a lot more to come...

Thought Leaders
Data
Examples

Anti-RFID activism -- Katherine Albrecht started a one-woman onl

ine campaign (CASPIAN) several years ago, to fight privacy invasion via supermarket loyalty cards. She has since become an increasingly active and visible organizer of an anti-RFID movement. Characterized by some as shrill and alarmist and by others as a strong consumer privacy advocate, Albrecht has successfully spurred the debate about one of the more contentious issues of ubiquitous computing technology.

The Wikipedia article by Katherine Albrecht includes a juxtaposition suggestive of the odd character of this debate. Contrast this: Bruce Sterling, who wrote the forward for the book, called it "a masterpiece of technocriticism" and compared it to Rachel Carson's famous work "Silent Spring" with this: Albrecht and McIntyre's forthcoming book "The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance" explores how RFID technology could enable the fulfillment of widely-held interpretations of biblical prophecy.

* Community Saves Independent Bookstore -- Not exactly anti-tech, more like pro-local business. But still a partial example of the casualties and costs of digital disruption, and the grassroots response (although it's not clear that the money that saved Kepler's is precisely grassroots).
* "Just one month after its abrupt closing, Kepler's Books and Magazines in Menlo Park, California, has reopened thanks to an outpouring of support from the community. The bookstore went out of business at the end of August, citing a loss of sales to the chains and Amazon.com, as well as rising costs."
* The website this article is drawn from, newrules.org, is an interesting example of grassroots activism in support of "localism".
* Privacy Experts Condemn Google Subpoena (from ZDNet)

Scenarios
Comments

"Anti-technology" does not describe this phenomenon correctly. Activists in our examples are often sophisticated users of technology. We should consider recasting this projection in terms of grassroots efforts that are "pro-something".

Notes from the FC March workshop:

Mediated methods need to go through trust process, as we came to trust non-electronically mediated methods.

Central computing creates a dependence - systemic "cultural ecology" run by computers - essntial and desirable activity can be shut down

Public policies:

Cell-free zones: bars religious and performance spaces, airplanes.

Resistance and recourse

Communities of those who don't want ____

Choosing levels of use of technology mediation - i.e. "phone-free Fridays"

Who should be able to reject costs of Wi-Fi?

Loss of amateur entertainment - inability to nuture

Loss of pattern-seeking when machines do most of it

Marketing that recognizes this trend creating markets for old technologies

Discrimination based on rejection of participation

Tech-free cruises


Page Information

  • 2 years ago [history]
  • View page source
  • You're not logged in
  • No tags yet learn more

Wiki Information

Recent PBwiki Blog Posts