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Week Two Notes

3 min read

We Are All Cyborgs Now

  • Cyborg- an organism “to which exogenous components have been added for the purpose of adapting to a new environment”

  • Everything is a physical modification of self and there has always been a limit 

  • We have a “second self” online that people interact with. You have to maintain that second self and present it as you already do in your day to day life

  • Technology gets adopted because people use it

  • Ambient intimacy- at anytime we can connect to anybody we want

  • Kids today are going to be super addicted to technology and will not have any down time or mental reflection

  • Humans and technology are co-creating each other and increasing our humanness by being able to connect with one another more

Big Mother is Watching You 

 

  • Technology today is capturing data that used to be inaccessible and turning it into something knowable. 

  • In the last decade, the tracking inclination has simultaneously coalesced and expanded through the organization of Quantified Self, a group defined by its interest in self-tracking and subsequent discoveries, with membership in the thousands that now spans the globe.

  • Basically in today's society, any and everything can be tracked by technology. Whether it be your sleep, steps, fitness routine, how long you're sitting for, women’s cycles, data about your baby and even your dog- it can all be done. 

  • Companies all have different strategies. All of these strategies aim to keep users engaged, to further refine the hardware and software. The more active and consistent users, the more data, and the more they retain and attract active and consistent users, who generate even more data. And the more data, the more attractive the company becomes to potential investors and/or buyers

  • Companies claim it is not surveillance if you are voluntarily tracking yourself. 

  • Up and coming companies like Spire promise to track respiration and focus while a company called ProGlove promises to  "unlock a new level of control and business intelligence for production management," also means having proof of the exact muscles and means through which an employee injured themselves and whether a company is on the hook for treatment.

  • Your data from these companies is supposed to be private, but that usually never the case. Companies will change the privacy policy even after you have read the terms and conditions an even put in that by agreeing third parties are allowed to buy your data from them. 

  • These companies are even invested in medical projects which would save people a trip to the doctors but the only worry again is the privacy issue. Nothing in technology is actually private in today’s society.