Abstract
Ubiquitous computing technologies will have a wide impact on our daily lives in the future. Currently, most debates about social implications of these technologies concentrate on different aspects of privacy and data security. However, the authors of this paper argue that there is more to consider from a social perspective: In particular, the question is raised how people can maintain control in environments that are supposed to be totally automated. Hinting at the possibility that people may be subdued to machines’ autonomous actions we introduce the term “Technology Paternalism”. We elaborate a working definition and illustrate the concept by looking at different examples based on current and future technology. We also dwell on the impacts of ubiquity and control of technology and suggest some approaches to assure a reasonable balance of interests such as a general “right for the last word”.
Résumé
Les technologies dites de « l’informatique ubiquitaire pourrait avoir des répercussions d’envergure sur la vie quotidienne. À l’heure actuelle, la plupart des débats sur les conséquences sociales de l’informatique ubiquitaire portent que sur les domaines de la protection de la vie privée et de la sécurité des données. Pourtant les auteurs de cet article sont d’avis que d’autres aspects de la perspective sociale doivent être également pris en compte. La question qui se pose en particulier est celle de savoir comment les gens peuvent conserver le contrôle dans un environnement qui va être de plus en plus automatisé. En évoquant la possibilité que les individus puissent être contrôlés par des machines agissant de façon autonome, les auteurs introduisent la notion du paternalisme technologique. Ils développent à ce sujet une définition de travail et illustrent le concept sur la base de technologies existantes et de technologies futures possibles. En outre, ils abordent le rapport entre l’omniprésence et contrôle et proposent des axiomes pour garantir un équilibre raisonnable entre différents intérêts. L’une de ces propositions est un « droit général à avoir le dernier mot ».
Zusammenfassung
Die Technologien des “Ubiquitous Computing” werden weit gehende Auswirkungen auf unser tägliches Leben haben. Derzeit bewegen sich die meisten Debatten zu den sozialen Auswirkungen hauptsächlich in den Gebieten des Datenschutzes und der Datensicherheit. Dennoch vertreten die Autoren dieses Artikels die Auffassung, dass auch weitere Aspekte aus der sozialen Perspektive betrachtet werden müssen. Insbesondere wird die Frage aufgeworfen, wie Menschen in einer Umgebung, die immer weiter autamatisiert sein soll, weiterhin die Kontrolle behalten können. Unter Hinweis auf die Möglichkeit, dass Menschen von autonom agierenden Maschinen kontrolliert werden könnten, führen wir Autoren den Begriff des Technologiepaternalismus ein. Wir entwickeln hierzu eine Arbeitsdefinition und illustrieren das Konzept anhand bereits existierender wie auch möglicher zukünftiger Technologien. Wir gehen zudem auf die Beziehung zwischen Allgegenwärtigkeit und Kontrolle ein und schlagen stellen Ansätze zur Sicherstellung einer angemessenen Balance unterschiedlicher Interessen vor. Einer dieser Vorschläge ist ein generelles “Recht auf das letzte Wort”.
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Notes
All these examples taken from Dworkin (2002)
“Elektrisierende Idee”, Technology Review — Das M.I.T Magazin für Innovation, No. 5, May 2005, p.30
This term was shaped by Lawrence Lessig in his famous book “Code is Law” (Lessig 1999).
In their paper, Petersson et al. demand a system that is explicitly designed to be overrulable. On the other hand, the proposed system is demanded to “be able to perform any semi- or fully autonomous manoeuvres” (Petersson et al. 2004, p. 2476).
A comparable approach was also mentioned by Clausen and Hansen (2002), decribing ‘Consensus conferences’ held in Denmark, where “[t]he idea has been to qualify lay people to participate in debates with experts, to get this debate diffused to a broader public, and to get the debate boiled down to a ‘consensus’ document [...]”.
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Spiekermann, S., Pallas, F. Technology paternalism – wider implications of ubiquitous computing. Poiesis Prax 4, 6–18 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10202-005-0010-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10202-005-0010-3