IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

206 Chapter 9
Pervasive computing technologies promise to transform the ways we ex-
perience and live in the world. But did anyone ask our permission to ‘‘produce
answers before they are required’’? Have we debated the consequences
of proactive computing? No, we have not. In its Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence
in 2010, the European Union is not much more thoughtful. This key
document outlines a vision of ‘‘convergence’’ as a point at which ‘‘the
human is surrounded by computing and advanced networking technology
which is aware of his presence, his personality, his needs—and is capable of
responding intelligently to spoken or gestured indications of desire, and
even in engaging in intelligent dialogue.’’ The AmI landscape, as it’s known
in Euro-speak, is embedded, personalized, adaptive, and anticipatory. It provides
‘‘an evolutionary path from current modes of human behaviour to
new behaviours that benefit from AmI enhancement.’’ The dominant
mode of communication is laid-back, rather than lean-forward, concludes
the document, with great confidence. 65
The problem with these visions is that they are based on one implausible
assumption and one plain wrong assumption. The implausible assumption
is that all people, and all systems, will perform optimally at all times. No
technology has ever done that, and none ever will. Even if 99.9 percent of
the smart tags, sensors, smart materials, connected appliances, wearable
computing, and (soon) implants that are now being unleashed upon the
world work as instructed—what about the millions that, inevitably, will
fail, or run amok? As my water-filled bag testifies, when human beings issue
instructions to devices, the results are not always benign.
The plain-wrong assumption is that we know what the consequences of
these new technologies will be. We know, for a fact, that technology always
has unexpected as well as expected consequences.
People Will Always Be Smarter
The worst-case scenario is the most likely: that smart technology will
be used in dumb ways, for the wrong reasons, with irritating if not disastrous
results. I recently purchased a train ticket from Amsterdam to
Switzerland—a ten-hour, four-train journey. A pleasant and expert woman
at the ticket desk, in Amsterdam Central Station, helped me select the best
route. It was a complicated transaction, but she was an expert intermediary
between me and the various databases and websites that needed to be con-