I remember it well, my first visceral response to the idea of a smartphone at the introduction of the iPhone back in 2007. No thank you, said I, spouting off my allegiance to my kiwi green Samsung dumb phone. No way did I want to walk around with a computer in my pocket.
As you correctly guessed, my reticence to join humanity in embracing smart technology lasted just one more year when I buckled and got a Blackberry (don’t laugh-they were cool back then). Eventually, around 2009, I realized that Apple’s iPhone 3G was way cooler and jumped in with both feet. Even though I dearly missed my beloved Blackberry’s keyboard, I was as entranced as the next guy with all those cool iPhone apps—even though I had not a clue how to use them.
Who knew that using this little device would morph into a form of collective sick addiction among the human race! Within a few short years it was clear that pretty much every man, woman, and child—yes, child—seemed to own an iPhone. We have acquired a strange attachment to these devices, as if the phone were a fifth limb. We are glued to social media apps, check our email accounts dozens of times a day, and rely daily on umpteen Google searches to answer random questions for us. We have developed arthritis in our thumbs, suffer from eyestrain, and will likely end up with neck problems in the long run.
All this to point out how quickly we adapt and are molded by modern technology. Just like B.F. Skinner’s behavioral theory of psychology, our decisions and actions conform to the prompts—those noisy notifications of new “likes”, text messages, and emails—like the rats lapping up the sugar in Skinner’s experiments. It is called operant conditioning, and it is a powerful thing.
In recent years we have been introduced to all manner of “smart” technology and artificial intelligence. This stuff terrifies me, but I seem to be a spoil sport as many friends have fearlessly made haste to add Alexa to their life. To me, the idea of some mechanical smart creature lurking in the shadows of my living room is terrifying. Before you call me paranoid, just read this article from the Washington Post.
But Alexa is nothing compared to the proliferation of smart technology that is set to invade all aspects of our lives, from our refrigerators to our medical treatment and everything else. Smart homes are being wired for (lazy) humans who can’t get off their butts to turn on a light or start their washing machine using their own two hands. Homes are now using Ring cameras for “security” that, along with all other smart technology in the house, can be hacked. Just ask that little 8 year-old girl who had a creepy guy talking to her in her bedroom last month claiming he was Santa Claus! Just today, Amazon fired four employees who worked on the Ring technology who were spying on customers!
The list of upcoming smart technology seems to be multiplying exponentially lately. It is beginning to feel a lot like George Orwell’s 1984 (okay, so he was off by a few decades). It seems not a day goes by that I don’t hear about or read about some new artificial intelligence or smart product is being introduced. The pace of this paradigm shift is accelerating and I just want to go live in Mayberry.
But consumers seem to be stoked about all these new smart gadgets and services that promise to make their lives cushier. It seems that folks are excited to have the next cool toy that can do this or that for them so they don’t have to be bothered. But why be so willing to acquiesce control over your life to potential hackers or bad apples out there in the crazy Internet matrix.
Let’s go a step further and talk about smart cities. Yep, entire city infrastructures will be designed with sensors, radars, and cameras galore to monitor, follow, spy, and collect your images and personal data. Using an integrated web of information and communication technologies—supposedly to help increase efficiency and reduce costs—the powers that be will record our every move. They call it “urban intelligence. I call it Big Brother.
The tech disruptors are railroading us into accepting electric autonomous vehicles. They are lobbying cities to have traffic lanes removed to force us to adapt to riding bicycles and scooters (in the rain, wind, sleet, and snow), use ride-hailing services that have yet to turn a profit, or to place our very lives in the robotic hands of a self-driving car. No problem that these things are crashing and killing people, just so the thing didn’t use evil fossil fuels it is given a pass.
We need to begin questioning the use of the term "smart." It is a trick word, really. Recently aired commercials promoting "Smart News," feature millennials trumpeting the condensation of all the news noise down to only the "smart" news. We should ask ourselves...exactly who curates this content--who gets to decide what is "smart" and worth knowing about?
Personally, I do not appreciate being manipulated into falling in line to the Grand Vision of smart life. I may have caved to the smartphone but I am drawing the line on all this other creepy stuff. Hopefully someone out there is planning a Dumb Town with enough traffic lanes and gas pumps so I can scoot around in a ’65 Mustang that is not GPS chipped. I mean, come on, this is supposed to be the land of the free, not the land of the surveilled.