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Draft version of article published in Internet Research. Full reference:
Nolin, J. & Olson, N. (2016)."The Internet of Things and convenience", Internet Research, 26(2), 360-376.
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IntR-03-2014-0082
The Internet of Things and Convenience
Jan Nolin and Nasrine Olson
Abstract
Purpose – This study explores and engages with connections between the evolving technology of the Internet of
Things and notions of convenience. In particular, the concept of alpha convenience is introduced in order to
articulate the broad scope of Internet “any-everything”connectivity, here called “alpha convenience”. .
Design/methodology/approach – The recommendations of Constructive Technology Assessment are followed
in order to evaluate technology before implementation. The seven value drivers articulated by Fleisch (2010) are
utilized in order to envision specific aspects.
Findings – Three critical aspects relating to alpha convenience are identified and discussed: gossiping
technology, personalization and the disempowered smartphone user. It is argued that extreme forms of
convenience shifts traditional areas of human agency onto technology. It is also noted that alpha convenience
tends to develop as ubiquitous features of future society, making it difficult, if not impossible, to opt out.
Research limitations – The article focuses on one powerful concept although the Internet of Things is merely
one of several terms used to deliberate the role of next-generation information technology and society. Notable
competitors are ubiquitous computing, pervasive computing, semantic web and digital living.
Social Implications – The Internet of Things is predicted to be an intrusive feature into everyday life and the
article identifies important aspects.
Originality/value – This is the first critical discussion of the Internet of Things and convenience. The article
aims at conceptual innovation. Overall, there is a substantial lack of critical scrutiny of the emerging ideas of the
Internet of Things.
Keywords Internet of Things, convenience, alpha convenience, value drivers, ubiquitous computing,
pervasive computing, silent gossip, personalization
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
The Disney/Pixar movie Wall-E (2008) presents a future scenario with people permanently docked into
mobile entertainment modules. Everything in their lives is handled by computers. Clearly, this is
convenience gone too far. But when, really, is it too much for our own good?
In this article we highlight a number of vital issues that tend to be ignored in the dominant technological
discussions related to the vision of Internet of Things. Although “convenience” as a concept is not
excessively highlighted in texts on the Internet of Things, it holds a paradigmatic status. There is an
implicit idea that our things can be made to serve us much better. Dohr et al. (2010: 804) argue that the
Internet of Things is a development of the previous notions of ubiquitous computing, pervasive computing
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and ambient intelligence. With such progress, there is a vital development as the earlier familiar
“dimensions of the common Internet – from anytime, anyplace connectivity for anyone – are supplemented
by the dimension anything”.
The metaphor is taken further by Sundmaeker et al. (2010: 44) informing us that: “The Internet of Things
allows people and things to be connected Anytime, Anyplace, with Anything and Anyone, ideally using
Any path/network and Any service.” Such visions of “any-everything” connectivity, hereafter termed alpha
convenience, constitute powerful formulations of convenient technology. These are also seductive visions:
Who wouldn't want ever-present supersmart tools making all aspects of life easier? Still, we should ask: are
there limits to how convenient we can become? How distant is the vision of alpha convenience to that of
Wall-E? Does alpha convenience imply that computers will move in and take over essential human and
social skills? At which points do we become so dependent on our personal information technology that we
cannot function without it?
Discussions on the Internet of Things usually seem to treat convenience as something unproblematic in the
sense that it is always beneficial (e.g. Thompson, 2005; Sundmaeker, et al., 2010). In other words, if we
can identify areas of human action where we can alleviate and create more efficiency, then there are no
problems in producing such technology. One argument against this position is that all personal
development involves effort, friction and overcoming difficulties. When we stop struggling with certain
tasks, we eventually stagnate in those areas. Taken to its extreme, supplying convenience makes work into
something that machines, not humans, do.
The aim with this article is to introduce the concept and critical perspective of alpha convenience, outlining
critical issues that need to be considered and scrutinized. In the current text, we will first introduce the
theoretical context of Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) – a proactive approach to evaluating
technology before implementation. Following this, we will touch upon the concept of Internet of Things
and other associated terms. We will also review earlier critical reflections. After a presentation of seven
value drivers articulated by Fleisch (2010), the article will continue with a discussion on three fundamental
aspects of alpha convenience. The concluding discussion is concerned with the possibilities of opting out of
alpha convenience.
Constructive Technology Assessment
Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) should be understood as a proactive approach in contrast to
conventional Technology Assessment (TA) (Genus, 2006; Rip, Misa, and Schot, 1995; Schot, 1992; Schot
and Rip, 1996). While TA deals with retrospective assessments of technology, CTA attempts strategic
intervention. Although the impact of technology cannot be fully foreseen, some trends and consequences
can be anticipated. Such foresight is valuable in both public debate, which potentially could guide
implementation (Rip, 2001), and policy formulations, which determine the path for future directions. The
underpinning idea is that the implications are too broad for technological development to be left solely in
the hands of technologists. These are commonly concerned with the production of functional devices,
which nevertheless, as a byproduct, construct societal instruments and, indeed, contribute to future societal
states, hence, the need for the engagement from social scientists.
There are two ways in which the project of engaging with Internet of Things is considerably easier than
with most cases of CTA. First, many involved technological researchers are overtly creating social
scenarios. This simplifies the task of social sciences, as there is less need to start from scratch in
speculating the implied social agendas involved. Second, mobile Internet technology has received a
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breakthrough in recent years. It is therefore easily understandable to a large public. Furthermore, many
citizens are concerned about issues of usability and are therefore likely to become readily engaged. Alpha
convenience is an issue of substantial societal significance and critical discussions should involve and
generate adequate public response.
The Internet of Things and similar concepts
The Internet of Things, probably coined in 1999 (Ashton, 2009) was initially little more than an adoption of
ubiquitous computing to the technology of the Internet. With time, this notion has been considerably
broadened. The original interpretation referred to the opportunity to identify objects with radio tags or
barcodes. This enabled an aggregation of Internet catalogues allowing one to see where any individual
object is situated. Although that remains the core meaning of the Internet of Things, as discussed later in
the article, the concept has since been expanded to include both the opportunities of technological
development and parallel visions brought forward through other concepts.
In the simplest terms, the Internet of Things seems to envisage a society where all members have access to
a full-fledged Internet environment populated by self-configuring, self-managing, smart technology
anytime and anywhere. Implicitly, the driving force for this expansive technology is to facilitate practices,
increasing convenience. As defined by Sundmaeker, et al. (2010: 41) “Internet of Things (IoT) is a dynamic
global network infrastructure with self configuring capabilities based on standard and interoperable
communication protocols where physical and virtual ‘things’ have identities, physical attributes, and virtual
personalities and use intelligent interfaces, and are seamlessly integrated into the information network.”
Similar concepts have appeared since the second half of 1990s, becoming increasingly relevant in recent
years. The most prolific concepts have clearly been ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1991, 1993a, 1993b,
1995), pervasive computing (Satyanarayanan, 2001) and semantic web (Berners-Lee, Hendler, and Lassila,
2001). Other concepts have also been suggested, outlining similar scenarios, such as ambient intelligence
(Zelkha and Epstein, 1998) and the Internet of people and things (Townsend, 2011). These concepts refer
to a multitude of ideas that in different ways renegotiate affordances of social structure and activity. Each
of these terms has its own specificity. Some terms, such as the Ubiquitous Web (Billsus, Brunk, Evans,
Gladish, and Pazzani, 2002), Digital Living and Web of Things (Guinard and Trifa, 2009) have been around
for some time without catching on.
The Internet of Things, focused in this article, has been promoted by European policymakers, for instance
in the European framework program on the “Future Internet”. As this concept embraces a number of
technological visions that were earlier held apart, it becomes easier for the social scientist to form an
understanding of where the current technological trajectories are leading society. It also becomes easier to
argue for the vital emergence of non-technological perspectives. However, these ideas have met with scant
criticism from social scientists. This is quite alarming since technologists are taking on the role of social
engineers, thereby bypassing politics, the public sphere and social sciences.
In their promotion of the Internet of Things, the EU policymakers emphasizes that “devices and tags can
interact with the environment and send the information to other objects through machine to machine
communication” (The Council of Europe, 2009: 7). In strategic documents (Commision of The European
Communities, 2008, 2009) a number of “smart” concepts are suggested:
Seamless connection of devices
Intelligent cars
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Machine to machine communication
Smart buildings
Things-to-person communication
Thing-to-thing communication
etc.
Several applications in this area has already been implemented, such as IoT Based Smart Rehabilitation
System (Fan et al., 2014) and manufacturing service systems (Tao et al., 2014).
Sundmaeker et al. (2010) categorises the “things” in a hierarchy of five domains. At the lowest level,
domain 1, there are real world entities or virtual entities that communicate with each other and with
infrastructure. At domain 2, things can compete with other things regarding resources and services. They
can be equipped with sensors and therefore interact with the environment. Higher up, at domain 3, they can
communicate and collaborate with other things and create groups or networks. More power is given to
things at domain 4, at which level they are considered autonomous. Here they can negotiate and adapt to
their environment, they can also extract information and patterns from environment. They are expected to
be able to learn, take decisions and reason. At the highest level, domain 5, things are capable of self-
replication, controlling, creating, managing and even destroying other things.
The current article builds on a reading of literature surrounding the Internet of Things. There is a heavy
technological emphasis within the literature devoted to that concept. Nevertheless, as it has been adopted as
the formative concept for the European Union research programme “Future Internet”, it becomes easier for
the social scientist to identify technological agendas connected to concrete political goals. The most central
texts for our understanding of the Internet of Things and alpha convenience can be found in this context.
In the Internet of Things, users are seen as socially active in a number of contexts, in various roles and
utilizing different tools in various contexts. Crucially, Internet technology will be layered with artificial
intelligence that serves to support each task with the appropriate set of resources: things. In order to
maximize functionality, devices and web applications will be in constant dialogue, in practice fine-tuning
personalization and alpha convenience.
Earlier critical reflections
The Internet of Things and associated concepts, mentioned above, have met limited criticism. Most scrutiny
has been directed toward ubiquitous computing but even this has been surprisingly sparse. The brunt of the
literature has been situated in the technological realm, i.e. working to manifest technological visions. The
First International Conference on the Internet of Things, held in 2008 was one of the very first attempts to
invite papers that addressed “non-technical topics”, however, this invitation was met with rather low
number of submissions (Jakobs and Williams, 2008). In the same year, van Kranenburg (2008) wrote a
general critical discussion of RFID tags connected to ambient intelligence.
The wealth of alternative concepts has not helped the evolution of critical reflection. Instead, criticism has
been fragmented, targeting different concepts. In addition, critical perspectives have come from a variety of
disciplines and approaches, often without any reference to each other. It is one of the ambitions of this
article to attract attention to this broad topic of investigation. Bohn et al. (2003) summarized some of the
early critical texts as belonging to three broad categories: vision, effects and man/technology. Typically,
then, one of the main criticisms has been that the vision is too vague. This technological concern has been
considerably lessened with time and the articulation of alpha convenience is specific enough to invite
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critical scrutiny. At the outset of the 2010s, we can clearly see a number of technologies converging as a
new form of information architecture surrounding the individual, discussed by Papacharissi (2010) and
Turkle (2012). However, reflections on the aggregated social effects of social media, cloud computing,
smartphones and heterogeneous computing are still minimal. Although not specifically concerned with the
Internet of Things, there is a growing literature on what can be called critical social media studies that is
highly relevant for the purpose of this article (Lovik, 2011; Van Dijck, 2013; Fuchs, 2014).Another vital
theme is a criticism of the way technology is turning humans into cyborgs (Araya, 1995). This area of
technological criticism is also aimed at other targets beyond that of ubiquitous computing and the Internet
of Things (Haraway, 1991; Greenfield, 2003; Lanier, 2010).
Otherwise, the main theme in the critical literature has been the violation of privacy (Araya, 1995; Talbott,
2000a, 2000b, 2000c). These texts raise some general issues of personal integrity. Until recently, it was not
possible to discern the future mechanisms of privacy intrusion. The works of Andrejevic (2007) Solove
(2007) and, more recently, Bauman and Lyon (2013) mark a turning point in this area. A specific genre of
ubiquitous computing research is that of wearable interface, certainly among our most important “things”.
This focus tends to highlight the potential for surveillance and this discussion has led to articulation of a
related concept: sousveillence (Mann, Nolan, and Wellman, 2003) or subveillance (Fuchs, 2011).
In an ambitious attempt to investigate the future of the Internet of Things, Pew Research Center (2014)
queried 1,867 experts and stakeholders on diverse viewpoints about the situation in the year 2025. There
were broad agreement about widespread beneficial effects during the next decade although there were a
number of criticisms as well. In case of the latter, the main emphasis was loss of individual privacy but also
concerns about digital divides (the plight of nonusers and developing countries). One problem discussed at
some length was that we might see the evolution of so complex networks that many functions came in
conflict with each other.
The value drivers of the Internet of Things
The obvious challenge for CTA is that technologists seldom are concerned with larger societal visions. For
the current article, we are indebted to the work of Fleisch (2010), which has served to pinpoint various
specific usages of the Internet of Things. In his article, Fleisch (2010) presents seven value drivers that the
Internet of Things can contribute to business processes. In the following, we will review these in order to
clarify how specific forms of increased convenience can be developed.
1) Simplified manual proximity trigger
Smart things can communicate their identification number to other things in their proximity. Fleisch notes
that this proximity trigger allows instant transactions, payment or validity checks automatically, without
human agency. “It helps them to save time, to gain independence via self-serving, and finally to increase
their perceived convenience” (2010: 8). From our perspective, this is a crucial element of alpha
convenience, as the things are constantly and unobtrusively talking to each other in the background. In his
early thinking about ubiquitous computing Weiser (1991) aspired to create technologies that disappeared in
the background, weaving themselves into the fabric of everyday life, becoming invisible. This is originally
a humanist idea as the computer is in the background, technology quietly serving the living. However, with
the recent development of machine-to-machine communication this seems to be a vision with some
problems. The proximity trigger also tends to shorten the time that humans have for mulling over a
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decision. This type of convenience reduces a typical process of buying into an instant interaction. The
effort of reaching for a wallet and perhaps selecting an appropriate credit card is taken away from us.
2) Automatic proximity trigger
This is a service that can be triggered when two things come into proximity with each other. For instance,
when car and key are close enough, the door is unlocked and opened. Similarly, proximity triggers can
support people with work instructions, for instance with augmented reality, when they approach different
machines on an assembly line. Fleisch notes that this can “eliminate almost any manual information
processing on the shop floor” (2010: 9). However, this kind of convenience tends to take memory and
evaluation functions away from humans. Moreover, the development of human skills is result of processes
of learning through trial and error and convenient technology might allow us to bypass whole segments of
difficulties. Processes that usually underpin serendipity and creativity may also be seen to be at risk
here.Morozov (2013) scrutinizes numerous attempts of implementing this strategy into the kitchens of
restaurants, keeping tabs on chefs adhering to the precise specifications of recipes. “The quest here is to
turn the modern kitchen into a temple of modern-day Taylorism, with every task tracked, analyzed, and
optimized... That cooking thrives on failure and experimentation, that deviating from recipes is what
creates culinary innovations and pushes a cuisine forward, is discarded as whimsical and irrelevant”
(Morozov 2013: 11). Clearly, it is important to counter tendencies of automatic proximity triggers leading
to Taylorism.
3) Automatic sensor triggering
With this service, things can sense data from their environment and this triggers various activities. This can
alleviate the active work of people in sensing various processes around them. As the sensors (senses) of
things can communicate with each other, the Internet of Things “can measure the world in detail at
reasonable cost... serves as a network of sensors for far more senses than those of human beings. And it can
do so continually, at a ridiculously high resolution, and across the globe” (Fleisch 2010: 9). The human
faculties of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch may all be inferior to the sensors of our things, particularly
if these are connected in large-scale networks and self-monitoring algorithms. How can we compete with
that? Furthermore, this kind of convenience allows us to hand over the caretaking of environments to
technology. There is a potential for people to rely less on their own warning systems. For instance, we may
be warned when stepping into an area with a statistically high level of crime or when we come into
proximity to people who in one way or another are sensed to have criminal history or behavior. In practice
we are enticed to rely more on technology than on our own instincts.
4) Automatic product security
Fleisch notes that “all fakes are shallow” (2010: 10), i.e., the Internet of Things can be used to keep track of
certified products by brands and obstruct all business of counterfeits. We find here a potential of totally
wiping out the black market. As a consequence, the stamp of authenticity is no longer given by experts but
by a certain position in the order of things. We no longer have any choice but to surround ourselves with
100% legal products. However, intellectual property rights are extremely difficult to navigate. Will the
sensors around me alert the police if I make my own T-shirt as a parody of a work of art or a major brand
logo? Or will we program our “product security things” to be generous and make certain allowances?
5) Simple and direct user feedback
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The Internet of things will also supply simple feedback to the user to affirm or reassure us that a certain
trigger has been activated. This can be in the form of a beep when swiping a card. The signal has two
modes: confirmation or silence. Essentially, this is a machine to human interaction that replaces people to
people interplay. This can eliminate countless everyday situations where we otherwise would have trivial
small talk with a person representing a customer service. It certainly is convenient and effective, but
strengthens the contemporary trend of humans having more and more interaction with machines and using
devices as an interface in our contact with other people (Turkle 2012).
6) Extensive user feedback
People can receive extensive feedback through a handy device, such as the mobile phone. This leads to
“Deep product convenience because individualized information is at hand exactly at the point of decision”
(Fleisch, 2010: 13-14).This is an area of the Internet of Things were specific and customized information is
assembled and delivered to the user at various locations. Fleisch notes that the mobile phone, as it has
developed into a computer of its own, serves as a key innovation. At the same time, we argue that the
development of the Internet of Things serves to transfer control from the mobile phone to smart
environments. Instead of being our tool, the smartphone can be re-mediated to be a tool for the smart
environment.
7) Mind changing feedback
Fleisch is concerned about the huge potential of technology being able to influence the behavior of users,
praying that it “will hopefully be used for good” (2010: 12). Nevertheless, the Internet of Things can be
utilized in a wealth of different ways to keep tabs on humans, making people behave in a more rational
manner. This specific added value will entice individuals to switch off their own moral compass and allow
technology to steer behavior according to norms found statistically significant. It is convenient to lazily
allow our things to monitor our behavior and make suggestions based on previous conduct or a database of
decision-making deemed excellent. Nevertheless, it is a kind of intimate technology, already creeping up on
us, which we should carefully evaluate.
Exploring alpha convenience
As becomes obvious when reviewing the seven value drivers, creating applications utilizing the Internet of
Things is a multifaceted project. There are myriads of opportunities targeting any perceivable aspect of our
lives. Technologists typically work in a piecemeal manner, targeting individual patterns of behavior with
the aim of making our daily lives more efficient. However, taken together and as a cumulative global drive
powered by the need for technologists to find funding for their particular skills, any area that requires some
form of human effort will have a bull’s eye painted on it. The possible problems associated with the seven
value drivers are summarized in table 1.
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Value driver
Possible problems
Simplified manual proximity
trigger
-Gossiping technology
-Technology appropriates decision-making process of humans
Automatic proximity trigger
-Appropriation of memory and evaluation functions
-Removal of “trial and error” forms of learning and creativity
-Neo-Taylorism
Automatic sensor triggering
-Senses of technology far superior to human “sensing” and
instincts
-Caretaking of environments shifted from humans to machines
Automatic product security
-Authenticity certification shifted from humans to machines
-Ubiquitous brand policing
Simple and direct user feedback
-Machine to human interaction replaces service related people to
people interplay
-Reduces amount of serendipitous meetings between humans
Extensive user feedback
-Personalization of information flows
-Disempowered smartphone owner
Mind changing feedback
-People rely less on own moral compass and more on statistically
significant majority indicators
Table 1: Value drivers of the Internet of Things (based on Fleisch, 2010) and possible problems connected
to these
From a CTA-perspective, we must question the need to do whatever we can do to reach some ultimate form
of “any-everything”. It is important to emphasize that although the seven value drivers discussed above
outlines a wide range of forthcoming applications, they do not really move into the area of advanced forms
of “smart technology”, i.e. the Internet of Things combined with artificial intelligence. Such a development
implies forms of convenience in which we no longer need to rely on our biological brain. We may not be
allowed the choice of “any-brain”, but still an option of several artificial super neurological networks. More
likely there will be decision-making systems in place that determines the role of different forms of
neurological networks. Building on the principles of cybernetics (Wiener, 1961) it is rational and effective
for control systems to deal with artificial and biological processes symmetrically. In our attempt to
understand the full potential of what the Internet of Things can be developed into we cannot expect that the
division between humans and machines remains the same. In the extensive survey performed by Pew
Research Center (2014) some experts argue that the Internet of Things in the 2020s will bypass the body
and connect directly to the brain and, moreover, to our DNA. With such a development, the neurology of
humans will be merged with the Internet of Things.
As humans become surrounded with powerful presences of “any-everything” we seem to confront, in new
ways, age-old philosophical questions of what it means to be human. As a species, we have become
accustomed to having monopoly on higher forms of intellectual processes. How are we transformed when
we rely on the signals of our things rather than the intuitions of our body? Are ever increasing tools for
more convenience really what the human body needs? At the core, notions here characterized as alpha
convenience, places an emphasis on machine learning rather than human learning.
In the following, we will go deeper into a few critical aspects mentioned in the preceding discussion:
gossiping technology, personalization, the disempowered smartphone and the renegotiation of agency.
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Alpha convenience and gossiping technology
Already today, the web is populated by widgets, gadgets and applications that automatically exchange
information about users. This is most clearly evident when shopping. The PayPal account or credit card
vendor will communicate automatically with the site selling goods. This is, however, only the most obvious
example. Most of our actions on the web will generate a flurry of gossip between websites and between
diverse gadgets. This is a development that is accelerating as applications are becoming “smarter”. Many
web-based services are now “mashups” that have drawn content from different sources.
Increasingly, the World Wide Web hosts adaptive Web resources that recognizes each individual user and
produces a tailor-made user interface based on previous surfing. The pioneering work in this area was made
by Amazon.com, but Facebook and Google are without doubt the most systematic developers of this kind
of functionality. During 2011, the widgets of Facebook gained some notoriety as it was shown that they
were “spying” on their users (Cubrilovic, 2011). The continuous revelations by Edward Snowden regarding
systematic and large-scale privacy intrusion by the intelligence community have stimulated widespread
public concern in this area.
Users tend not to notice that their tools are “quietly translating their actions into bits of information that
flow upstream along the same channels and pipes that carry data, images, music, and e-mail” (Andrejevic,
2007: 111). Similarly, in her critical discussion of social media, van Dijck (2013) discusses the evolution of
a culture of connectivity in which social relations are encoded in technology at the back end of applications,
far beyond the control of our privacy settings. The gossip that technology routinely and extensively
performs on all users is therefore in the background, a kind of silent gossip. Although people all through
history have been the target of gossip when they have not been around, it is only now that our devices are
talking amongst themselves about us. And, for “our convenience”, we are not privy to what is being said
and to whom/what this information is being sent.
With alpha convenience, silent gossip becomes omnipresent. Our web-based gadgets are not only talking to
each other, they are also keeping tabs on our movement in daily life, gossiping with a number of devices
around us. All this smart activity is performed in order to make our lives easier. With alpha convenience,
we are delegating a number of difficult tasks so as to be more effective and focus on, hopefully, more
important things. Still, we should reflect on the fact that we are letting go of a number of skills that
historically have been quite important for us.
Gossiping technology is a prerequisite for alpha convenience. It is only by attaining intimate knowledge of
our preferences, habits, strengths and weaknesses that appropriate and fluent services can be produced.
Ideally, these services are so perfectly attuned to who we are that they become natural, invisible and,
indeed, silent.
The very phenomenon of technological gossip is in urgent need of social science research. We need to ask
questions about what it means for individuals, groups, institutions and societies to be surveilled and
supported through gossiping technology. We also need to scrutinise various forms of personalised services
that are evolving and it is to this we turn to next.
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Alpha convenience and personalization
Alpha convenience, as enabled by the sixth and seventh added value of the Internet of Things (above),
seems to require that a multitude of computers will recognize each individual and adapt services
accordingly. When a person enters a new environment, s/he is instantly recognized and resources
customized. Compared to current practices of mobile Internet access, this is a far more elaborate
technology. The process is eerily akin to that of users accessing an adaptive webpage such as Amazon.com.
The smart room allows “things” connected to the user to communicate with the things of other users as well
as permanent and temporal things situated in that environment.
It seems that we will be supplied with personalized adaptive systems that are trained to become familiar
with user interests and quickly adapt to changes (Light and Maybury, 2002). This entails a kind of personal
servant, which has such intimate knowledge of the user that it can search and filter in his or her stead. This
is a powerful and potentially dangerous idea with resonance in many fields such as Information Retrieval,
Text Retrieval Evaluation and Machine Learning. It is also the basic ideology and goal underpinning the
semantic web and the search engine of Google.
The emergence of such personalized technology raises questions on how many choices will be afforded the
user in customizing experience of a new environment. While it would be possible to allow users a range of
options, this may not be convenient. The user is certainly at a disadvantage when compared with the smart
room. Her own things will know her needs, interests, traits and networks intimately and can negotiate
appropriate resources with a multitude of other things within the environment. It is probably hard to
develop smart and convenient environments without implicitly conceptualizing users as flawed in the
management and creation of effective and sophisticated filters for their own information needs. Users
generally have too little understanding and access to available information resources to be able to make
judgment calls that can compete with the things of alpha convenience.
Basically, the overwhelming amount of available data places humans at emphatic disadvantage. We have
simply produced too much data. Left to our own devices, we do not know how to make the best use of it or
even to select the most appropriate tools for our needs. This is not a new existential dilemma for mankind.
Information overload has been considered as far back as 4 BCE by Seneca (Weinberger, 2011). Shirky
(2010) argues that the modern articulation of information overload is filter failure. Here it is suggested that
our social networks can constitute our filtering systems. However, in the Internet of Things, our social
networks will also be embedded in technology and, in a sense, manifest themselves as things managed by
computers rather than humans.
At least three fundamental problems with automatic personalization have been identified in previous
literature (Pariser, 2011; Sunstein, 2007; Turow, 2011). Such discussions have been focused on web-based
personalization. Processes enabled by smart environments are likely to extend these problems.
First, building on the historical interests of the individual may constrict future personal development.
Personalization may simply disallow individual growth as our private information technology, for instance
in the form of semantic agents, constructs filters based on how we historically have behaved. This is a
difficult problem to bypass. Surfing on the Internet generates a wealth of information that can be refined
and categorized in order to predict future preferences and needs. Even if it is mathematically doable for
computers to understand our history, and who we have been, it is something else to diagnose our potential
and say who we may become. Arguably, personalization tends to hold us back by reaffirming past identities
and filtering out such information that reflect other identities. The problem is particularly pertinent for
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young people who routinely change identities and need to find evolving maturity through the information
accessed. The convenience of the Internet of Things may restrict personal growth.
Second, some technologies are developed with the assumption that each user only holds one identity, while
in reality people assume different roles over the course of each day. This is a major complication for those
who construct artificial agents with the aim of monitoring and predicting human needs and actions. How
can we build things to serve the specific needs of individuals if they keep changing roles all the time? In the
matching of complex human beings with artificial agents the problem is perhaps solved by requiring users
to be more one-dimensional. As Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg claimed, “you have one identity [...].
Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity” (Kirkpatrick, 2010: 199). This
statement is understandable within the framework of radical transparency promoted by Facebook. The
position makes sense from a technocratic perspective, if we can get people to become less multifaceted,
then the work of semantic agents is much facilitated. The main thrust of the social and human sciences tells
a different story. We are multifaceted beings and we need that kind of complexity in our lives in order to
grow. Alpha convenience may push single identities upon us, making us less complex and more
predictable.
Third, information needs are situated, varying according to specific and unique situations in daily life.
Personalization systems will have difficulties in recognizing these differences as long as they have limited
access to that situational data. Furthermore, the modern development of professionalism has emphasized
the value of being able to alternate between different roles. We need to know when to maintain a
professional distance, when to take up a leadership role, how to identify relationships when different
professions meet and when to select and apply new perspectives. Working in a professional landscape with
constantly shifting roles is also vital for personal development. The Internet of Things holds the potential of
monitoring our situations and our roles. When positioned in a typical mingling situation, the smart
environment can conveniently recommend people for us to meet and rank them according to interest,
availability and importance. We may also be given useful personal information harvested from Facebook
and similar applications. However, such tools are limited and deceptive as each individual situation is
unique and a challenge to the support given by artificial intelligence. If we will learn to rely heavily on
smart tools in professional life, we will probably do away with a number of professional skills.
Again, many questions arise that require further scrutiny. Is this kind of personalization desirable? The
trajectory toward alpha convenience is perhaps assumed to be locked, but the decision to build and
empower a technology which places humans at a considerable disadvantage in decision-making should be
one made deliberately. We should ahead of time ask: What would the implications of such personalization
be for the individuals in their daily lives and for society as a whole?
Alpha convenience and the disempowered smartphone owner
Rennie and Wellman (2012) identify a triple revolution of contemporary societies, consisting of social
revolution, Internet revolution and mobility revolution. Similar interpretations of modern societies are
common in social science. Clearly, several aspects of alpha convenience are already in place. However,
while the mobility revolution has made Internet access possible for just about anyone at any place and any
time, alpha convenience pushes the envelope. It is important to clearly identify the difference between our
current smartphone-based mobility and alpha convenience. Such differences concern the central positioning
of artificial intelligence in the development of Internet of Things.
12
Arguably, something happens in our relationship to tools when they become “smart”. We are used to tools
that amplify and alleviate our intentions and decisions. In such cases, we maintain control and the tool is a
powerful extension of our action. However, as Rheingold (1985) recognized, computers and software
should not be seen as ordinary technology but as “tools for thought“, our modern medium for thinking and
imagining. Building on this notion, what happens when our ubiquitous support structure for thinking
evolves to the next level and becomes “smart tools” with artificial intelligence embedded into them? Will
these self-managing objects eventually build up an agency removed from the intentions of the human
creator (or at least the human user)? This becomes an extreme example of what Callon (1986) and Latour
(1992) call actants, objects that express agency.
Smart tools can be seen as something different to ordinary tools. They do not serve us by extending our
agency. Rather, they are co-constructing human action. This reframing of what the tool can be is
systematically put to work in visions of Internet of Things. Smart technology is constructed to be a kind of
mediator of our ordinary life. This is far beyond the traditional meaning of the tool and it constitutes a
challenge to social scientists to rethink the relationship between humans and their tools. In comparing
contemporary smartphone practices with the visions of alpha convenience we would like to emphasize
three aspects.
First, the evolution of smart environments. Users will be recognized by the environment they enter and
available resources will be customized according to their perceived personal preferences.
Second, “anything” will be used to access and navigate the Internet. In essence, this means that users will
not need to take along their own device for Internet access, such as a smartphone. Instead, they can make
use of whatever device is close by.
Third, the transference of agency from the smartphone to the surrounding intelligence constitutes a shift in
power from pocket of user to technological environment. In a very real sense, the smartphone owner is
disempowered. Our portable devices are appropriated to be more concerned with the input from the smart
environment than it is with human owners. Compared to computers, humans are acting in extreme slow-
motion. The smartphone that is constantly connected to the Internet of Things will have much more
communication (and in common) with other things.
Concluding discussion: Can we opt out of alpha convenience?
We have discussed several vital problems that tend to be ignored in technological discussions in the
extreme forms of convenience that in this article have been called alpha convenience. We have argued that
the relocation of power from the things we carry with us, i.e. smartphones, laptops, pads, etc., to things in
an intelligent environment generates a number of significant problems. Most of these are already present in
our current highly digital lives, but alpha convenience will tend to introduce new dimensions.
We have argued that the alpha convenience of the Internet of Things pushes the boundaries of convenience
much too far. We are presented with convenient technology that does not only help us with physical work.
We are also assisted in the way we use our senses and as the technology advances, there are good reasons
for investing more trust in the sensors of things rather than our own faculties. Furthermore, we are also
supplied shortcuts that simplify our thinking. In a way, we find this paradoxical, as there is a clear humanist
idea underpinning the vision of computers adapting to humans, not the other way around. We are supplied a
tantalizing vision of computers unobtrusively humming in the background, ready to attend to our every
13
need. Nevertheless, alpha convenience presupposes a series of renegotiations of the division of labour
between humans and machines.
In line with the agenda of Constructive Technology Assessment, we argue that it is important to discuss the
possible consequences of alpha convenience before full implementation. This is particularly pertinent as it,
once implemented, does not seem to be a technology that can be avoided by the individual user.
Absence of choice seems to be implicit in the key documents read for this analysis. Already, in the early
work of Weiser (1991, 1993a, 1993b) workspaces are emphasized. As a consequence, dealing with the
technology becomes a prerequisite for performing work. In the visions of the European Commission
(Commision of The European Communities, 2008, 2009) we find this kind of technology integrated into
cars and buildings. As ubiquitous technology is built into the hardware of our environment, we can no
longer choose non-usage.
While implementation of new technology by necessity comes in stages, there are also dimensions of force
involved. In other words, volunteerism also enters the debate. With this fundamental humanist ideal, the
agent is seen as an active individual who is free to choose among competing alternatives. Internet of Things
is likely to interfere with volunteerism.
The range of “involuntary non-use” has traditionally varied depending on type, form of use and availability
of competing technologies. For instance, it may be possible for us to choose not to have a car if we have
access to sufficient public transport to work. Also, dominating technologies such as TV can be avoided, as
it is often not necessary for work. ICT is an entirely different extension of social action, as it has become
such a dominant element in most workplaces and also tends to renegotiate boundaries between work and
leisure. The vision of alpha convenience seems to be one that leaves scarce opportunity to opt out.
This absence of choice is also present on a societal level, as we seem to be faced with a technological
trajectory independent of political agendas. On the face of it, this links to ideas of technological
determinism in which technology is seen as the cause of social change. However, as Gunkel (2003) argues,
empirical studies demonstrate that technological determinism (whether the ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ kind) is
inadequate as explanation of the problem and a simplification of a complex situation.
From our perspective, the absence of choice comes from a lack of both early and broad discussions on the
appropriate role for technology in society. This article has aimed to contribute to awareness of the price we
pay for alpha convenience. We invite further discussion and research of these issues.
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