S.E.A Reading Response #3

In Chapter 2 of Radical Technologies, Greenfield discusses ‘The Internet of Things’ which he describes as a ‘weave of networked perception [that] wraps every space, every place, everything and everybody on Earth’. He states there is a group of people who have quickly adopted this idea of quantification and instrumental living, this group is called the ‘Quantified Self’. They are obsessed with knowing how their body operates on a daily basis and whether that operation is efficient. Is it possible to make it run optimally? Greenfield cites the adoption of smart wearables with sensors such as the Fitbit and the Apple Watch being the main contributors to this rise in meticulous self-testing of bodily optimization.

Greenfield did ponder on whether this obsession and rise of ‘Quantified Selfers’ came as a result of the capitalist system that people reside in. Their need to keep up with the day-to-day demand of output and efficiency in a capitalist society could be extended to their bodily functions as well. While I did find this thinking to be necessary and helpful, I believe Greenfield may have overlooked the ‘where’ of the question. Does where people live/work affect whether they’re more likely to become someone who is ‘Quantified’? For instance, in my opinion, those who live in NYC are more likely to be categorized as ‘Quantified Selfers’ than those who live in Virginia; since the nature of a metropolitan city is one that fosters self-optimization and monitoring. But this too can be a part of the umbrella of capitalism.

In many ways the Internet of Things (IoT) comes back to privacy. When we use products like an Apple Watch or any general product from a large corporation we sign away our freedom to private. What happens to privacy when we adopt smart home technologies like the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple’s Homepod. Greenfield asks the question (which I have paraphrased) ‘was it really bad to live disconnected? Was our past way of life that difficult that we accepted this?”