Smart Watches Ride the Smart Technology Wave

Introduction

The wave of the smart movement of technology has been building for some time, but is now a rushing onslaught of innovation building towards the great dam of the Internet of Things (IoTs). The Internet of Things is a tech nerd’s fantasy world where everything is connected to the Internet, including people, and everything that can be experienced in the real world can be digitally duplicated in virtual space. Rather than getting up to answer the phone, change the music, adjust the lighting, etc. a simple command through one’s fleshy digital interface can accomplish any such task. The IoTs would be an ideal environment for the changeover cybernetic human of sci-fi visions, of which iPhones, iPads, and smart watches would be comical relics. 

Smart Watches 

There is a fine balance between creating tools to reflect needs, and creating needs to fulfil tools. Humanity is at the tipping point of imaginings which determine the course of future evolution, and for those who dream of a digital world erasing suffering the wave could not rush fast enough. Eric Migicovsky conceived of the Pebble smart watch because, as an avid biker, he did not want to break stride reaching in his pocket for his phone, as so “’I thought of creating a watch that could grab information from my phone,’ the 26-year-old Canadian says. ‘I ended up building a prototype in my dorm room’” (Pavlus). An industrial design student at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, innovators like Migicovsky help create the tools to fulfil their complex needs. 

These needs have evolved from the needs created by the innovative tool that the iPhone was. The iPhone does as much as a computer, and many who have it find it does too much for a phone. However, with the smart watch, the digital overload of the iPhone can be managed as “Pebble uses Bluetooth to connect wirelessly to an iPhone or Android phone and displays notifications, messages, and other simple data of the user’s choosing on its small black-and-white LCD screen” (Pavlus). On the surface of things this sounds simple enough, a way to simplify one’s life, but just below the surface is the reality that this is another tool to manage another tool to do things another tool (computer, phone, etc.) once did. Rather than simplifying, those who wear a smart watch now have one more thing to carry and manage in the growing addiction to technology.

Rather than be freed up by these tools many people are addicted to them, over-identifying their very identity with their online status, and spending much more time managing their tools when they once did things. This process is speeding up as technology becomes cheaper and more widespread, creating a gap in which those who do not participate are shunned by the (O’Brien). The fanaticism of Apple consumers are a keen example of this over-identification, wherein some people will not even associate with those who do not buy/use the same brands out of some type of convoluted status/identity collective experience. In fact, as these tools have grown and people become more connected than ever before online, studies show that people are feeling more socially disconnected than ever before (Price). This has been shown to have an eroding effect on social community in many ways, and;

The most dramatic change is our ability to be “elsewhere” at any point in time, to sidestep what is difficult, what is hard in a personal interaction and go to another place where it does not have to be dealt with. So, it can be as simple as what happens when 15-year-olds gather for a birthday party. As anyone who has ever been 15 knows, there is a moment at such events when everyone wants to leave. Things get awkward. It is, however, very important that everyone stay and learn to get along with each other. These days, however, when this difficult moment comes, each 15-year-old simply retreats onto Facebook. Whether or not they physically leave the birthday party, they have “left.” (Price)

In this and many ways (much like the calculator inhibited the growth and retention of simple math skills) the smart technology movement is inhibiting social evolution. Tools are best when they help people overcome challenges, but when those tools erase challenges they also erase the potential for growth that achieving the difficult entails. The long term implications have been explored in the short film Sight, in the film Gattaca, and indirectly in the film Idiocracy. However, these cautionary tales appear to have no effect on the headlong rush to technological perfection, and very little to no efforts are being made to balance use of technology with engagement in the real. 

The Internet of Things

Such addiction and disconnection through being overly connected would reach its apex in the Internet of Things. Right now the IoTs is at the stage of contemplation, as people are developing the linguistics to discuss what humanity does not yet have the capacity to create. However, this is the first stage of creation, turning myths into meanings which can then be translated into actions. However, in the discussion of what can conceivable be done it is the lone wolf who dares ask “Just because it can be done should it be done?” Where is the moral foundation in the IoTs? Where is the moral foundation in the world of today where social structures are barely functioning over a thinning stratum of chaos and brutality which bursts through the surface with greater regularity and ferocity? Hello? 

The lone wolf is ignored as the discussion continues…The IoTs is postulated on the belief that broadband Internet can be enlarged to a possibly limitless connectivity via WiFi, enlarging The Cloud to keep all data, services, and information. Through digital connectivity anything will be able to be a portal onto the IoTs (Morgan). This includes people who could conceivable become equipped with all manner of digital monitors, interfaces, and upgrades. While health professionals are quick to point out that such monitors have the potential to save lives of the isolated elderly, others see that isolation growing due to the very technology people use to cope with it. This vicious cycle of dependence is reinforcing the need for itself as people lose the patience, critical thinking skills, and many other aspects to the technology wave (Ingram).

Ironically, one of the greatest abusers of technology, the American government, has issued a security warning about the possibilities of the Internet of Things. The FBI warned, According to the PSA’s list of IoT risks, cybercriminals can take advantage of and human vulnerabilities by exploiting these weaknesses with IoT’s deficient security capabilities and patching difficulties. The FBI also cited that the lack of consumer awareness can open windows of opportunities for attackers to not only execute online but threaten the physical safety of consumers as well. (TrendMicro)

This warning should be heard especially concerning the smart digitalizing of all money, and the possibilities for chipping which have been discussed. 

Lone Wolf Warnings

However, there are those in the smart technology culture who are advocating a more measured approach to tech cultivation, understanding that innovations such as smart watches and virtual reality need not come at the cost of home grown human values. Joe Kraus, serial entrepreneur and partner with Google Ventures emphasizes that humans could have quality and quantity with “Slow Tech.”  In a recent presentation to his tech savvy colleagues, Kraus emphasizes, 

We are creating and encouraging a culture of distraction where we are increasingly disconnected from the people and events around us, and increasingly unable to engage in long-form thinking. People now feel anxious when their brains are unstimulated. We are losing some very important things by doing this. We threaten the key ingredients behind creativity and insight by filling up all our ‘gap’ time with stimulation. And we inhibit real human connection when we prioritize our phones over the people right in front of us. (Ingram)

An innovator inside the technology industry Kraus’ voice should be heard. Kraus himself admits “he has an ‘unhealthy relationship’ with his phone and is constantly pulling it out to check things, and that if he lets it, that behaviour “fills up those gaps in my day — some gaps of boredom, some of solitude” (Ingram). Such gaps could be filled up with behaviors which cultivate self-sufficiency, such as reading, meditating, or taking little naps to restore energy during the day. The constant influx of stimulation through the junk food viral media of the Internet is over-stimulating people in the worst way. All too often what goes viral is the basest and most shocking details of human depravity, and not the positive advances and innovative approaches to seemingly intractable problems. It is a lesson throughout history that whatever people put their attention on tends to grow, and right now the largest markets are distraction markets with a corresponding growth in ADD and the medication which funnels it into productivity. 

The Internet of Things would take this disorder and institutionalize it in a way which may be too intractable to come back from without cataclysm as David Mitchell illustrated in the novel Cloud Atlas. Addressing the psychological motivations for this trend, Klaus quotes sociologist Dr. Sherry Turkle, as, “We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Digital connections offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. We expect more from technology and less from each other” (Ingram). Anything that has the capacity for transformation is inherently frightening, and human relationships are one of the most transformational experiences available for learning, expanding, and enlarging experience. This reality is so much truer for people than it is for computers, iPhones, or any other smart technology imaginable (The Telegraph). Vulnerability is the path to growth, and technology has become an efficient enabler for those who have systematically closed their minds to the reality of vulnerability. 

Conclusion

Like the many creative tools mankind has made, smart technologies have real value, but these values must not eclipse more fundamental human needs. Ultimately, it is human desire which stimulates the path of culture, and if the collective weight of culture no longer desires real intimacy in favor of a safer virtual version this can relatively easily be gained. However, what is lost is not easily regained, and those next generations who are born into the dystopia their ancestors escaped into they may be at a loss for the meaning in the matrix.

Works Cited

Ingram, Matthew. “Is modern technology creating a culture of distraction?” Gigaom.com, 23 June 2012. Retrieved from: https://gigaom.com/2012/06/23/is-modern-technology-creating-a-culture-of-distraction/

Morgan, Jacob. “A Simple Explanation Of 'The Internet Of Things'.” Forbes, 13 May 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/05/13/simple-explanation-internet-things-that-anyone-can-understand/#2a70f5986828

O’Brien, Ashley. “Forget . Solar dresses are the future.” CNN, 12 Sep. 2014. Retrieved from: http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/08/smallbusiness/future-fashion-tech/index.html

Pavlus, John. “Smart Watches.” MIT Technology Review, 2016. Retrieved from: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/513376/smart-watches/

Price, Michael. “Alone in a crowd.” American Psychological Association, Vol. 42 No. 6 (2011), pp. 26. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/06/social-networking.aspx

The Telegraph. “10 technologies that will make the Internet of Things a reality.” The Telegraph, 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/ces/11340738/10-technologies-that-will-make-the-Internet-of-Things-a-reality.html

TrendMicro. “FBI Warns Public on Dangers of the Internet of Things.” TrendMicro.com, 17 Sep. 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/internet-of-things/fbi-warns-public-on-dangers-of-the-internet-of-things