IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

200 Chapter 9
Embedded—but Not Asleep
The disappearance of computing is a bad reason to stop thinking about it.
If citizens do not set the agenda for its use, others will. The most energetic
developers of new applications for pervasive computing right now are logistics
industries, as we saw in chapter 3, and security and police interests.
When the computing industry started pushing pervasive computing hard
in the late 1990s, it often used ‘‘House of the Future’’ mock-ups to showcase
potential applications and attract the attention of potential funders.
These mock-ups usually featured (and still do) lots of voice-controlled and
touch screens. Microsoft’s Easy Living project focused on the software technologies
needed to create a smart home environment, such as software
agents, computer vision, and machine learning. 38
But in the aftermath of September 11, attention switched en masse from
home to homeland security (HS). Reliable figures for the total public and
private expenditures on HS technologies are hard to find, but estimates are
that total HS outlays—by federal, state, local, and private entities in the
United States—grew from $5 billion in 2000 to $85 billion in 2004, with a
forecast that they will grow to $130 billion—and possibly as high as $210
billion—by 2010. 39
Are disappearing computers a menace? Think about that frog again. How
does his behavior compare with our own relationship to technology? I’d
say that like the frog, we have a vague sensation that ‘‘things seem to be
getting warmer around here’’—but for most of us, the condition of ‘‘getting
warmer and less comfortable’’ has been a constant throughout our lives.
We’re used to it. It’s not so much that technology is changing quickly;
change is one of the constants we have become used to. And it’s not that
technology is penetrating every aspect of our lives; that, too, has been happening
to all of us since we were born. The shocking thing to me, at least, is
the rate of acceleration of change—right now. As I described in chapter 2,
the accelerometer has disappeared off the right-hand side of the dial.
And critical reflection on this new wave of technology is in short supply.
And yet, in the domain of policing and law enforcement, a whole new industry
has emerged called digital ID. It already has its own conference and
trade show, Digital ID World, which specializes in ‘‘the identity management
space.’’ 40 The world’s largest smart-card rollout has already started in
China; all Chinese over the age of sixteen are being issued a smart card as