Ricardo Iniguez - Blog #3

Can ubiquitous computing help a family with a hectic schedule gain more family time?  The ‘intelligent home’ scenario used in chapter 12 (Tavani, p.363) gave us a snapshot of how this technology could help facilitate the everyday activities in a person’s life. My reaction to this topic was opposite of what was posted by some of my classmates and instead of the fear of loosing control to technology, I easily accepted the idea of delegating decisions to a computer.

            In my opinion, there are so many positives to having a smart home. One positive is the idea of having a smart refrigerator or smart food pantry that can keep the inventory of the remaining food in the house. These food storage objects would help save time tremendously by being able to populate a grocery list—and even sending the suggested list to the local grocery store to have ready for you to pick up—based on frequency of previously bought items. They (pantry/refrigerator) could also suggest breakfast/lunch/dinner ideas for the family based on food inventory. As a family, it seems that we spend half the day (sometimes a challenging one since it is hard to keep a 2, 3 and 8 year old calm) going through the grocery shopping experience. The idea of not having to exert all that energy on a task that can easily be handled by software would be greatly appreciated by a busy family like mine.

            Another positive is that the ‘intelligent home’ can turn off any energy-consuming device that is not in use. This could help save a lot of money in the long run, since children get sidetracked and it’s hard for them to comprehend the importance of being green by turning off lights/TV/computer.

            But with these positives, there are possible negative social effects that might arise from having this technology. The main one I can think of is based on the idea of “keeping up with the Joneses.” On a local level, this could create problems with neighbors, friends or even other family members that can’t afford this technology and might be forced to go in debt (by charging credit cards), which could lead to problems for these groups in the future. On a world level, children growing up with the ‘intelligent home’ technology could see other cultures around the world that can’t afford the latest that technology has to give as inferior (cultural inferiority). 

            An ethical concern—which is mentioned in the book (Tavani, p.365)—deals with our obsession with technology. Living in an ‘intelligent home’ the thinking is done for you and could lead to more dependence on technology, which limits human freedom and autonomy as Brey suggests (Tavani, p. 366).

            To answer the question at the beginning of the blog, I believe—basing my decision on the fact that I could afford this house—that this technology could help my family spend more family time together because of the time/money saving efforts that are tackled by the creative software in these ‘intelligent homes.’ I said that my reaction was opposite because I can and have shunned technology—deleted Facebook account because it ate up too much family time—and I don’t ever fear technology because I feel very much in control of my life (I could easily pull the plug on the ‘intelligent house’ if the negative side effects were affecting my family).