Vilem Flusser on ubicomp

Wednesday, April 12. 2006

[…] machines already strike back at us even when they are stupid. How much more will they strike back when they have become smarter?

[…]

This is a problem of design: What should machines be like if their striking back is not to cause us pain? Or, better still: if it is to do us some good? What should the stone jackals be like if they are not to tear us apart and if we ourselves are not to behave like jackals? Naturally, we can design them in such a way that they lick us instead of biting us. But do we really want to be licked? These are difficult questions because nobody really knows what they want to be like. However, these issues need to be addressed before one can start to design stone jackals. (or mollusc clones or bacterial chimeras for that matter).

Or Spimes, or networked bags or …

And these issues are more interesting than stone jackals and supermen. Are designers ready to address them?

[Quotes from “The Lever Strikes Back” in The Shape of Things, Vilem Flusser, 1999]

Posted by Ben Kraal in Quotable, Techno-social at 04:36 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

1999, wow. See, a few clear-eyed folks have had the ability to see the pitfalls coming for quite some time now – I sure hope we’re about ready, collectively, to start paying attention.

#1 Adam (Homepage) on 2006-04-12 20:20 (Reply)

The book is from 1999. Flusser died in 1991. (!)

#2 Ben Kraal (Homepage) on 2006-04-13 02:52 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: Textile-formatting allowed
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry
Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.