Two Ubicomp Dystopias
Exhibit one: A bus stop ad that displays your weight in Rotterdam. Consider Adam Greenfield’s ethical guidelines for user experience in ubiquitous-computing settings, principle 3:
Be conservative of face. Ubiquitous systems are always already social systems, and must contain provisions such that wherever possible they not unnecessarily embarrass, humiliate, or shame their users.
This bus stop ad is not only inconsiderate but outright purposefully humiliating. I’m not surprised that marketers find abusive uses for any kind of technology, but in the context of ubicomp this tendency to abuse opens some terrifying new possibilities. Worst of all, I cringe at the thought that this is merely an ad. Despite its humiliating nature it would certainly make for an interesting experiment in persuasive computing, but as an advertisement i find it rather tasteless.
Exhibit two: Near Future Laboratory contrasts an excerpt from Philip K. Dick’s Ubik with this article from the Wall Street Journal:
Jamie De Lisle’s Buick had been warning her for days, first with a flashing yellow light, then a flashing red light. But the 31-year-old mother of two from Collinsville, Ill., was too busy to heed the distress signals. It was only when Mrs. De Lisle began hearing an incessant beeping that she took notice: If she didn’t make her car payment that day, the vehicle wouldn’t start the next day.
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